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 457

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
2793	2 December 1872	Henry Joseph Leatherland Mary Ann Bird	Henry Joseph Leathwick Mary Ann Bird 💍 1872/8879	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	24 22	Springfield Road Do	4 years 1 year	In the Church of St. Luke	72/2246		6 December 1872	Rev. E.A. Lingard
2794	3 December 1872	John Werden Coker Lizzie Allen	John Etherden Coker Lizzie Allen 💍 1872/4860	Widower Widow	Publican	40 43	Christchurch Do	13 years 12 years	In the Avonside Church			8 December 1872	Rev. E.A. Lingard
2795	4 December 1872	Samuel Wickliffe Jane Roberts	Samuel Wickliffe Jane Roberts 💍 1872/6257	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	30 24	Christchurch Do	3 Days 3 Days	In the Church of St. Michael	72/1549		9 December 1872	Very Rev. Dean Jacobs
2796	5 December 1872	James Frame Catherine M. Innis	James Frame Catherine McInnes 💍 1872/6596	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Newark Servant	28 26	Christchurch Do	1 year 1 year	In the Scotch Church			10 December 1872	Rev. C. Fraser
2797	5 December 1872	Henry Angus Saylor Amelia Soffe	Henry August Samba Amelia Sopp 💍 1872/8882	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 22	North Rakaia Christchurch	9 months 2 years	In the Church of St. Luke	72/2247		11 December 1872	Rev. E.A. Lingard
2798	6 December 1872	William Work Isabella Thomas	William Work Isabella Thomas 💍 1872/8849	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor	33 19	Christchurch Do	3 years 12 years	In the House of Robert Williamson	72/2243	Robert Williamson, father	12 December 1872	Rev. C. Fraser
2799	6 December 1872	William Bone Margaret Mahan	William Bone Margaret Mahan 💍 1872/6599 William Kennedy Catherine Mahan 💍 1872/6614	Bachelor Spinster	Fauvger Servant	27 26	Christchurch Do	2 months 6 years	In the House of Mr. C. Fraser	72/1666		13 December 1872	Rev. C. Fraser
2800	7 December 1872	Samuel Morris Esther Atkinson	Samuel Morris Esther Atkinson 💍 1872/6116	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	31 35	Malvern Do	11 years 3 years	In the Harewood Church	72/1569		14 December 1872	Rev. L. Moore
2801	7 December 1872	David Moodie Emily Sherman	David Moodie Emily Sherman 💍 1872/9023	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Dressmaker	27 22	Christchurch Do	3 Days 3 Days	In the Church of St. Luke			16 December 1872	Rev. E.A. Lingard
2802	10 December 1872	Beria Robinson Margaret Davidson	Beria Robinson Margaret Davidson 💍 1872/6401	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	22 22	Riccarton Do	1 1/2 years 1 1/2 years	In the House of Rev. J. Habens			17 December 1872	Rev. J. Habens
2803	10 December 1872	Julian Harman Richardson Elizabeth Turgeon	Julian Harman Richardson Elizabeth Ann Twegger Wilbee 💍 1872/6602	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	22 19	Christchurch Do	2 years 1/2 year	In the House of Mrs. Beechey	72/1666	Letitia Beechey, mother	18 December 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).