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 586

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 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
2874	3 March 1873	James Smith Sarah Caldwell	James Smith Mary Ferguson 💍 1873/5557 David Smith Sarah Sole 💍 1873/11494	Widower Widow	Labourer	48 40	Christchurch Do	6 years 7 years	In Christchurch Church			March 3 /1873	Very Rev. Dean Jacob
2875	3 March 1873	John Christian Christensen Ann Whiting	John Peter Christiensen Ann Whiting 💍 1873/11269	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Nurse	30 23	Cashmere Christchurch	2 years 1 year	In the Church of St. Michael	73/2211		March 3 /1873	Very Rev. Dean Jacob
2876	6 March 1873	Mark Burridge Jane Hemingway	Mark Burridge Jane Heminway 💍 1873/6796	Bachelor Spinster	Stockman Cook	25 22	Christchurch Do	3 years 2 years	St. Luke's Church Nelson	12/6/5		March 5 /1873	Rev. E.A. Lingard
2877	8 March 1873	George Farlance Mary Somerville	George Farland Mary Somerville 💍 1873/6880	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Servant	28 22	Heathcote Valley Do	18 years 6 months	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	13/704		March 8 /1873	Rev. C. Fraser
2878	10 March 1873	Thomas Louis Eliza Hand	Thomas Novis Eliza Ward 💍 1873/6883	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	21 18	Addington Do	2 years 1 year	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	13/705	John Hand, Father	March 10 /1873	Rev. C. Fraser
2879	11 March 1873	Alexander Mackenzie Margaret Campbell	Alexander MacKenzie Margaret Campbell 💍 1873/6898	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	35 21	Lincoln Do	3 years 1 year	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	73/711		March 26 /1873	Rev. C. Fraser
2880	13 March 1873	Francis Chaplin Isabella Innis	Francis Chaplin Isabella Innes 💍 1873/6889	Bachelor Widow	Butcher	30 30	Templeton Do	1 month 9 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser Christchurch	13/707		March 13 /1873	Rev. C. Fraser
2881	15 March 1873	John Martindale Jane Holmes	John Martindale Jane Holmes 💍 1873/6886	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Milliner	25 24	Christchurch Do	3 years 3 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	13/406		March 15 /1873	Rev. C. Fraser
2884	22 March 1873	Samuel Timms Emma Dorrell	Samuel Timms Emma Dorrell 💍 1873/6892	Widower Widow	Labourer	38 38	Christchurch Do	8 months 4 years	In the Scotch Church	3/709		March 22 /1873	Rev. C. Fraser
2885	22 March 1873	Robert Elliott Bull Ellen Lyddon	Robert Elliott Bull Ellen Lyddon 💍 1873/6802	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	34 24	Ferry Road Christchurch	2 years 2 years	In St. Luke's Church	73/677		March 22 /1873	Rev. E.A. Lingard
2886	24 March 1873	George Charles Hamar Sarah Emerson	George Charles Flaxmore-Concliffe Sarah Emerson 💍 1873/4811	Bachelor Spinster	Digger	24 21	Christchurch Do	1 week 14 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	73/708		March 24 /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).