Intentions to Marry, 1872

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840384, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 455

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Oct - Dec

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
151	5 November 1872	Charles Euson Edith Leach	Charles Enser Edith Leach 💍 1872/9374	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	31 26	Christchurch Do	1 month 3 months	In the Church of St. John	72/1823	8 November 1872	Rev. E. Bailey
152	9 November 1872	John Kelly Sarah Ann Wells	John Kelly Sarah Ann Wells 💍 1872/6581	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	30 24	Christchurch Do	5 years 2 years	In the House of Rev. C. Fraser	72/1659	9 November 1872	Rev. C. Fraser
153	9 November 1872	John Joseph Kenny Mary Yaunger	John Joseph Kenny Mary Fangney 💍 1872/6377	Bachelor Spinster	Cook Servant	35 30	Christchurch Do	3 Days 6 Days	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	72/1589	11 November 1872	Rev. J. M. Lenyen
154	12 November 1872	Edward John Tits Ford Mary Willis	Edward John Tite Ford Mary Willis 💍 1872/6290	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	29 23	Apawa Do	3 years 22 years	In St. Mark's Church	72/1560	30 November 1872	Rev. J. C. Cholmondelay
155	12 November 1872	Henry Roberts Mary Ann Foster	Henry Garland Mary Ann Carter 💍 1873/6838 Henry Donnelly Mary Anne Butler 💍 1872/4284	Bachelor Spinster	Watchman Servant	28 34	Springfield Road Do	1 year 1 year	In the Church of St. John		1872	Rev. E Bailey
156	13 November 1872	John Crain Annie Taylor	John Craik Annie Taylor 💍 1872/8873	Widower Spinster	Dairyman Servant	35 22	Christchurch Do	3 years 10 years	In the Church of St. Luke	72/2144	28 November 1872	Rev. E. H. Luigard
157	16 November 1872	Laning Coates Minnie Ellis Brow	Laning Coates Minna Ellis Row 💍 1872/6269	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	33 25	Christchurch Ayreton	1 year 13 years	In the Ayreton Schoolroom Ayreton	72/1553	16 November 1872	Rev. Dr. Harper
158	18 November 1872	Henry Revell Christina Taylor	Henry Powell Christina Taylor 💍 1872/6587	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 21	Christchurch Do	1 month 1 week	In the House of Rev. C Fraser	72/1661	18 November 1872	Rev. C. Fraser
159	19 November 1872	Samuel Lemon Martha Crunce	Samuel Lemon Martha Camac 💍 1872/6590	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	30 27	Lecton Christchurch	9 years 6 years	In the House Ellesmere of Rev. C. Fraser	72/1662	29 November 1872	Rev. C. Fraser

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).