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 587

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
2821	2 January 1873	William Henry Wilcox Mary Elizabeth Wasbourne	William Henry Wilcox Mary Elizabeth Washbourn 💍 1873/8464							73/1239		14 January 1873	Rev. C. Bowen
2829	3 January 1873	John Cockhead Annie Mouldey	John Coxhead Eleanor Cressy Annie Mouldey 💍 1873/6076	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 22	Christchurch 10 years in the Papanui Merivale		Christchurch 8 years Church	73/2267		14 January 1873	Rev. H. Cooper
2830	3 January 1873	James Connolly Margaret Herring	James Connolly Margaret Harrington 💍 1873/5408	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	33 22	Lincoln 2 years in the Roman Lincoln 8 months Hawks Track		Catholic Church	73/428		16 January 1873	Rev. J. C. Chervier
2831	7 January 1873	William Augustus Alice Augusta Carter	William Augustus Pascoe Alice Augusta Carter 💍 1873/11434	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk in Holy Orders	25 21	2 years in the Maimate		Avonside 6 weeks Church	73/200		4 February 1873	Rev. J. G. Chamonedeley
2846	16 January 1873	Henry Has Round Mary Ann Harrison	Ebenezer Round Mary Anne Harrison 💍 1873/5141	Bachelor Spinster	Platelayer Servant	25 22	Waltham 2 years in the Waltham 5 months Opawa		Churchahs	73/108		25 February 1873	Rev. A. F. Douglas
2849	4 February 1873	James Radford Ellen Middleweek	James Radford Ellen Asenath Middleweek 💍 1873/11509	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	35 32	Christchurch 12 years Colombo Road Christchurch 7 months in the Town Belt		Christchurch 10 years Church	73/183		17 February 1873	Rev. L. Moore
2852	10 February 1873	Nathaniel Wolfe Fanny Maria Barlow	Natheniel Wolfe Fannie Maria Barlow 💍 1873/8467	Widower Spinster	Engineer	30 19	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 3 years	Riccarton Church	73/1240		10 February 1873	Rev. C. Bowen
2854	15 February 1873	John Edwin Allen Sarah Jannett Gilchrist	John Edwin Allen Sarah Jennett Gilchrist 💍 1873/6265	Bachelor Spinster	Steward on Ship Servant	29 20	Lyttelton Christchurch	5 weeks 5 weeks	In the house of Mr Moriss, Lyttelton	73/491	There is no person having the authorty to give consent	24 February 1873	Registrar of Marriages Lyttelton
2855	22 February 1873	Amos Smart Anne Baker	Amon Smart Ann Baker 💍 1873/6751	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	40 40	Templeton	12 years 17 years	In the Prebbleton Church	73/659		14 February 1873	Rev. R. E. Paige
2858	17 February 1873	Charles Lukey Hannah Woolnough	Charles Lukey Hannah Woolnough 💍 1873/5126	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 24	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 3 days	In Papanui Church	73/102		17 February 1873	Rev. L. Moore

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).