Intentions to Marry, 1873

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840385, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 4 2024

Page 610

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1873

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
3068	5 December 1873	Peter Lowrie Mary Wright	Peter Lownie Mary Wright 💍 1873/11341	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	29 19	Christchurch do	2 weeks 9 years	by the house of Ashburton	73/2236	John Wright, father	5 December 1873	Rev C. Fraser
3071	9 December 1873	Arthur Plank Grace Campbell	Arthur Plank Grace Campbell 💍 1873/10933	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker Servant	26 29	Christchurch do	9 years 4 years	St Lukes Church	73/2092		9 December 1873	Rev. B.Q. Lingard
3073	2 December 1873	Peter Isausen Ellen Ihunk	Peter Jansen Ellen Hunt 💍 1873/11350	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor Servant	35 22	Addington do	7 weeks 4 weeks	In the house of Addington	73/2239		2 December 1873	Rev C. Fraser
3074	2 December 1873	James Keylesby Mary Scarnett	James Inglesby Mary Savage 💍 1873/4772	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler Servant	32 22	Christchurch do	7 years 12 months	In the house of Christchurch	73/1251		2 December 1873	Rev A. F. Douglas
3075	2 December 1873	William Alexander Brown Florence Ella Garnett	William Alexander Brown Florence Ella Garnett 💍 1873/8551	Widower Spinster	Sheepfarmer	33 22	Greendale Greendale	7 years 12 months	In the Primitive Methodist Chapel Christchurch	73/1270		11 December 1873	Rev. R. Ward
3076	2 December 1873	Johannes Olai Mousen Mary Robertson	Johannes Olai Minsen Mary Robertson 💍 1873/11359	Bachelor Spinster	Jeweller	31 19	Christchurch do	9 years 9 years	In the Scotch Church	73/2242	James Robertson, father	2 December 1873	Rev. C. Fraser
3078	2 December 1873	Joseph Lymous Jane Newland	Noah Symons Jane Newland 💍 1873/11356	Bachelor Spinster	Boiler Servant	26 23	Christchurch Addington	10 years 3 months	In the house of Christchurch	73/2241		2 December 1873	Rev. C. Fraser
3079	2 December 1873	Andrew Letham Adeline Sturgeon	Andrew Letham Adaline Sturgeon 💍 1873/7033	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 22	Christchurch do	8 days 6 weeks	by the house of Ashburton	73/758		2 December 1873	Rev A. F. Douglas
3080	13 December 1873	James Begg Sarah Kelso	James Begg Sarah Kelso 💍 1873/11371	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	30 20	Christchurch St Albans	3 days 10 years	In the house of Rangiora	73/2245	John Kelso, father	13 December 1873	Rev. C. Fraser
3081	15 December 1873	Joseph Baruch Lucy Emma Rose Howe	Joseph Barnett Lucy Emma Rose Horne 💍 1873/11368	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	25 27	Ferry Road Christchurch	6 months 13 months	In the house of Christchurch	73/2244		15 December 1873	Rev. C. Fraser
3082	17 December 1873	Edward Bright Jane Foyle	Edward Wright Jane Doyle 💍 1873/11362	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	21 23	Christchurch do	3 days 1 day	In the house of South Rakaia	73/2243		17 December 1873	Rev. C. Fraser

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

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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).