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 459

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
151	23 December 1872	George Louise Marsh Elizabeth Anne Jeffs	George Daniel Marsh Elizabeth Ann Jeffs 💍 1872/8909	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 22	Templeton Do	11 years 6 Months	Templeton Church	1172		December 23 1872	Rev. W. E. Paige
152	24 December 1872	Thomas Hephtein Lewis Sarah Deacon	Thomas Stephen Lewis Sarah Dixon 💍 1872/6404	Bachelor Spinster	Foreman	33 26	Christchurch Do	4 Days 5 Years	Congregational Chapel	1598		December 24 1872	Rev. J. Habens
153	26 December 1872	Benjamin Slew Margaret Borland	Benjamin Glew Margaret Borland 💍 1873/6832	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Manager Governess	27 17	Christchurch Do	3 Days 3 Days	In the House of Mr & Mrs James Borland	1572	James Borland Father	December 26 1872	Rev. C Fraser
154	26 December 1872	James Robinson Ellen Thomas	James Robertson Leask Ellen Thomas 💍 1872/6326	Bachelor Widow	Stonemason Servant	31 32	Christchurch Do	6 weeks 6 weeks	In the House of Mr. Lesk	1572		December 26 1872	Rev. A. H. Douglas
155	26 December 1872	Francis a Boyle Susan Mc. Elon		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	33 30	Christchurch Do	2 Days 1 week	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	1573		December 26 1872	Rev. J. Chervier
156	26 December 1872	John Yates Martha Brown	John Macintosh Mary Brown 💍 1872/8546	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Shirtmaker	26 23	Christchurch Do	2 years 1 week	Wesleyan Church
157	26 December 1872	William Henry Wilcox Mary Elizabeth	William Henry Wilcox Mary Elizabeth Washbourn 💍 1873/8464	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	33 20	Christchurch Do	1 week 20 years	In the Washbourn Church	73/159	Henry John Washbourne Father	December 26 1872	Rev. C Fraser
158	26 December 1872	James Streeter Mary Eliza'n' Clintons	James Streeter Mary Eliza McClintoch 💍 1873/6826	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 26	Prebbleton Do	2 years 6 weeks	In the House of Mrs C Fraser	73/160		December 26 1872	Rev. C Fraser
159	26 December 1872	Thos Denson Bridget Fahy	John Dixon Bridgitt Fahy 💍 1873/7021	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 21	Christchurch Do	7 years 1 week	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	73		December 26 1872	Rev. M. Leuyon
160	27 December 1872	George Rogers Elizabeth Parish	George Rogers Elizabeth Parish 💍 1873/7036	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 22	Templeton Do	10 years 1 year	Templeton Church	73/159		December 27 1872	Rev. W. E. Paige
161	27 December 1872	Henry Greubath Mary John Hunter	Henry Trembeth Mary Johns 💍 1872/6416	Bachelor Spinster	Minister Servant	28 30	Heathcote Durham Street	2 years 1 year	In the Wesleyan Church	1172/1604		December 27 1872	Rev. H. Fitchett

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).