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 585

District of City 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
2859	12 January 1873	Hugh Corbett Prudence Fulton	Hugh Corbet Prudence Fulton 💍 1873/6859	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Cook	26 26	Christchurch Do	2 years 1 year	In the house of Rev C. Fraser, Luan Street	73/699		14 February 1873	Rev. C. Fraser
2861	17 January 1873	Auguste Hintry Caroline Williams	August Hinz Caroline Williams 💍 1873/6862	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	30 27	Christchurch Do	5 days 5 days	In the house of Rev C. Fraser, Luan Street	73/698		17 February 1873	Rev. C. Fraser
2862	17 January 1873	Malcolm In Callum Emily Florence Mundy	Malcolm McCallum Emily Florence Mundy 💍 1873/5132	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	26 23	Christchurch Do	5 years 1 year	In the house of Mr Cuff, North Town Belt	73/105		14 February 1873	Rev. A. F. Douglas
2863	3 February 1873	William Anstey Jemima Robinson	William Anstey Jemima Robinson 💍 1873/6865	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 24	Riccarton Addington	2 years 4 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser, Tuam Street	73/697		18 February 1873	Rev. C. Fraser
2864	4 February 1873	John Matheson Mary Jane Daley	John Matheson Mary Jane Daly 💍 1873/6871	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	30 28	Christchurch Do	3 days 1 week	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser, Luan Street	73/90		24 February 1873	Rev. C. Fraser
2865	5 February 1873	John In Kowe Elizabeth Savage	John McKown Elizabeth Savage 💍 1873/6952	Bachelor Widow	Mariner	34 37	Christchurch Do	7 years 1 month	In the house of Mr The Hopkins, Cashel Street	73/70		25 February 1873	Rev. H. J. Habeus
2866	8 February 1873	James Sapes Alice Swindell	James Gapes Alice Swindell 💍 1873/6799	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	25 19	Christchurch Do	12 years 6 years	St Lukes Church, Christchurch	73/7	John Swindell, Father	25 February 1873	Rev. E. A. Lingard
2868	10 February 1873	John In E Gowan Hester Hannah Hard	John McGowan Hester Hannah Ward 💍 1873/5150	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 20	Christchurch Do	3 days 4 months	In the house of Robert Hard, Cashel Street	73/111	Robert Hard, Father	10 February 1873	Rev. A. R. Fitchett
2869	10 February 1873	George Raven Mary Dale	George Raven Mary Dale 💍 1873/11260	Bachelor Widow	Sawyer Laundress	42 40	Little River Do	2 months 5 years	St Michaels Church, Christchurch	73/2268		28 February 1873	Very Rev Dean Jacobs
2870	12 February 1873	William Matson Mary Ann Foster	William Watson Mary Ann Foster 💍 1873/6874	Widower Spinster	Labourer Housekeeper	45 36	Christchurch Do	3 years 3 years	In the house of Rev C. Fraser, Luan Street	73/70		1 March 1873	Rev. C. Fraser
2871	15 February 1873	Joseph Cook Ann Bennett	Joseph Cook Ann Bennett 💍 1873/5147	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	26 22	Christchurch Do	1 year 1 year	In the house of Mr Phillips, Durham Street	73/110		1 March 1873	Rev. H. B. Marten

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).