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 584

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
2842	28 January 1873	Joseph Lyons Margaret Reynolds	Joseph Lyons Margot Reynolds 💍 1873/6982	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	30 20	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 2 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	73/404		12 February 1873	Rev I. M. Deyer
2843	31 January 1873	Henry Samuels Rebecca Rice	Henry Samuels Rebecca Rice 💍 1873/6844	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Servant	28 22	Christchurch Do	10 years 8 years	In the house, 94 Tuam street Chch	73/692		31 January 1873	Rev. C. Fraser
2844	3 February 1873	Richard Nipper Margaret Langston	Richard Dipper Margaret Langston Rawnsley 💍 1873/6847	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	29 21	Christchurch Christchurch	4 weeks 4 weeks	In the house of the Revd C Fraser, Tuam Street Christchurch	73/693		3 February 1873	Rev. C. Fraser
2845	3 February 1873	Thomas Bolton Maria Garland	Thomas Swinton Maria Garland 💍 1873/6793	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	35 30	Christchurch Do	4 years 3 years	In the Church of St. Luke	73/674		3 February 1873	Rev. E. A. Lingard
2847	4 February 1873	Thomas Frost Payne Marianne Elizabeth Papprill	Thomas Frost Payne Marianne Elizabeth Papprill 💍 1873/5	Bachelor Spinster	Shearer Servant	25 18	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 18 years	In the house of Mrs Hart Cashel St. Christchurch	73/2268	Joseph William Papprill, Father	4 February 1873	Rev. W. B. Marten
2848	5 February 1873	Thomas Davis Catherine Beatty	Thomas Bonis Catherine Beatty 💍 1873/6850	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 17	Courtenay Courtenay	3 years 8 years	In the house of Margaret Beatty	73/694	Margaret Beatty, Mother	5 February 1873	Rev. C. Fraser
2850	8 February 1873	William Chapman Elizabeth Garland	William Chapman Sarah Elizabeth Garland 💍 1873/6085	Bachelor Spinster	Stock dealer	20 20	Heathcote Do	3 years 20 years	In the Registrar's office	73/431	John Chapman, Father Mary Garland, Mother	8 February 1873	B. Parkerson
2851	10 February 1873	Alexander Munro Ellen Talbot	Alexander Munro Ellen Talbot 💍 1873/6016	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 23	Tai Tapu Springston	9 months 10 years	In the Wesleyan Church, Durham Street Christchurch	73/408		10 February 1873	Rev. A. R. Fitchett
2853	10 February 1873	Matthew Kinsman Elizabeth Chegwidden	Matthew Kinsman Elizabeth Chegwidden 💍 1873/6853	Widower Widow	Mason Servant	36 30	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 16 years	In the house of Mrs C. Fraser, Tuam Street	73/695		10 February 1873	Rev. C. Fraser
2855	12 February 1873	Peter Rawlings Sarah Henwood	Peter James Rawlings Sarah Jane Henwood 💍 1873/6856	Bachelor Spinster	Soap & Candle Maker	29 21	Christchurch Do	5 years 10 years	In the house of W. Henwood	73/696		12 February 1873	Rev. C. Fraser
2857	15 February 1873	Henry Heathcote Matilda McCloy	Henry Heathcote Cross Martha Matilda McCloy 💍 1873/11263	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Servant	30 21	Christchurch Papanui	3 years 4 years	In the Church of St. Michael	73/2209		15 February 1873	Very Rev. Dean Jacobs

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).