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 458

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
2804	10 December 1872	Joseph Allen Annie Roskruge	Joseph Allen Annie Roskruge 💍 1872/9347	Bachelor Spinster	Returning Officer Laborer	34 29	Christchurch Halswell	2 years 9 years	In the Halswell Church	72/1814		10 December 1872	Rev. C. Bowen
2805	11 November 1872	Jeremiah Minogue Mary Jordan	Jeremiah Minogue Mary Jordan 💍 1872/6386	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	34 28	Christchurch Do	1 year 1 year	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	71/1592		10 December 1872	Rev. J. McEniry
2806	12 December 1872	Peter Jewley Rosa Hobbs	Peter Tembey Rosa Hobbs 💍 1872/6413	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker Servant	30 21	Do Heathcote	3 weeks 3 weeks	In the House of Mr. Brunsley	71/1603		12 December 1872	Rev. W. B. Marten
2807	12 December 1872	Martin Gotthmeyer Justina Wunviek		Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	28 21	Harewood Do	4 months 4 months	In the House of Rev. C. Fraser	71/1667		12 December 1872	Rev. C. Fraser
2808	17 December 1872	James Chalmers Rebeccea Carter		Bachelor Spinster	Meat-preserver Servant	29 21	Templeton Do	4 years 4 years	In Templeton Church			17 December 1872	Rev. W. S. Paige
2809	17 December 1872	John Atteakley Emma Peagrim	John Oakley Emma Peagram 💍 1872/6260	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	21 19	Christchurch Do	3 Days 3 Days	In the Church of St. Michael	72/1550	Mary Deagrim, mother	17 December 1872	Very Rev. Dean Jacob
2810	18 December 1872	Charles Rutledge Annie Robinson	Charles Rutledge Annie Robinson 💍 1872/8876	Bachelor Spinster	Policeman	27 24	Christchurch Do	3 years 3 years	Christchurch	72/1		18 December 1872	Rev. E. A. Lingard
2811	18 December 1872	Philip Kelly Louisa Croun	Philip Kelly Louisa Cronin 💍 1872/6608	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	24 22	Christchurch Do	2 years 2 years	In the House of Rev. C. Fraser	72/1668		18 December 1872	Rev. C. Fraser
2812	19 December 1872	Charles Thomas Notter Eliza Jane Ringham	Charles Thomas Roper Eliza Jane Ringham 💍 1872/6293	Bachelor Spinster	Servant Servant	33 20	Apawa Do	3 years 3 years	In the Church	72/1561		19 December 1872	Rev. C. Cholmonde
2813	21 December 1872	Edwin Long Watson Anne Smalley	Edwin Long Watson Anne Smalley 💍 1872/6263	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 21	Christchurch Do	3 Days 3 Days	In the Church of St. Michael	72/1551		21 December 1872	The Very Rev. the Dean Jacob
2814	21 December 1872	John Borrett Elyabether Jane Hawkins	John Borrell Elizabeth Jane Hawkins 💍 1872/8843	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Servant	23 22	Hammond Road Do	3 years 1 year	In the [UNCLEAR]	72/1		21 December 1872	Rev. [UNCLEAR] Barter

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

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).