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 608

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
3056	19 November 1873	John Wilson Henrietha Blade	John Wilson Henrietta Slade 💍 1873/10648	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	34 22	Christchurch	6 years 10 years	In the Church	73/1987		19 November 1873	Rev. H. C. Watson
3057	24 November 1873	William James Beeby Sarah Moore	William Jane Beeby Sarah Moore 💍 1873/11326	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	32 21	Christchurch do	2 weeks 4 days	By the house of Rev. C. Frame	73/2230		24 November 1873	Rev C. Fraser
3058	24 November 1873	Albert Aldridge Christina Lelfare	Albert Aldridge Christina Telford 💍 1873/11329	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Housekeeper	30 30	Christchurch do	14 days do	In the house of Ellesmere	73/2232		24 November 1873	Rev. C. Fraser
3059	25 November 1873	William McKenzie Eliza Highsted	William McKenzie Eliza Ann Highstead 💍 1873/4670	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	29 21	Christchurch do	5 days do	In the house of Waipara	73/2231		25 November 1873	Rev C. Fraser
3060	25 November 1873	Edward Henry Garrick Jennie Froude	Edward Henry Garrick Jennie Toomer 💍 1873/11332	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	29 23	Christchurch Ferry Road	8 years 12 months	In the Scotch Church	73/2233		25 November 1873	Rev. C. Fraser
3061	26 November 1873	James Kennedy Catherine Brick	James Kennedy Catherine Brick 💍 1873/8500	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 24	Halswell Christchurch	14 years 6 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	73/1253		26 November 1873	Rev. J. Van Cuylen
3063	29 November 1873	Walter Daniel Sophia Mary King	Walter Daniels Sophia Mary King 💍 1873/4793	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	26 18	Christchurch do	3 days do	In the Church of St. Luke	73/2091	John James King, Father	29 November 1873	Rev. J. Van Cuylen
3064	29 November 1873	Thomas Lawler Julia Corbay	Thomas Lawler Julia Corboy 💍 1873/8497	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 25	Christchurch do	3 days 5 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	73/1252		29 November 1873	Rev. E. A. Lingard
3065	3 December 1873	William Cable Elizabeth Jane Harwood	William Calder Elizabeth Jane Harwood 💍 1873/11338	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	24 21	Prebbleton do	2 years do	In the house	73/2235		3 December 1873	Rev. C. Frame
3066	4 December 1873	George Hobbs Eliza Caroline Howes	George Herbert St Hill Eliza Caroline Howes 💍 1873/11344	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	36 25	Christchurch do	8 years 1 week	In the house of Rev. C. Frame	73/2237		4 December 1873	Rev. C. Fraser
3067	4 December 1873	George LeLievre Christina Thierhoff	George Ludemann Christina Mierhoff 💍 1873/11347	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	31 22	Christchurch Lincoln Road	3 days 8 months	In the house of Leeston	73/2238		4 December 1873	Rev. C. Frame

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).