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 597

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 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
2883	19 March 1873	Charles James Down Catherine Sarah Rider	Charles James Dorn Catherine Finn 💍 1873/8470	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker Dressmaker	20 20	Knight Town Knight Town	6 weeks 6 weeks	Church	73/1241		2 April 1873	Rev. C. Bowen
2899	7 April 1873	Joseph Hillshire Catherine Prior	Joseph Wiltshire Catherine Sarah Rider 💍 1873/10687	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	28 20	Merivale Rolleston	7 weeks 6 years	In the house of Mr Prior	73/2001	Thomas Prior, father	14 April 1873	Rev. J. Knowles
2907	17 April 1873	Henry Greaves Mary Prior	Henry Greaves Eliza Mary Prior 💍 1873/6757	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 19	Rolleston Springs Rolleston	7 years 7 years	In the house of Mr Prior	73/1661	Thomas Prior, father	19 April 1873	Rev. W. E. Paige
2910	21 April 1873	John Milne Margaret Grayhead	John Milne Margaret Craighead 💍 1873/6469	Bachelor Spinster	Iron Moulder	27 23	Christchurch Lincoln	3 years 13 years	In the house of Mr Grayhead	73/563		10 May 1873	Rev. A. F. Douglas
2912	26 April 1873	William Charles Maddison Mary Maria Thomas	William Charles Maddison Mary Maria Thomas 💍 1873/6760	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 19	Templeton Templeton	12 years 9 years	Church Templeton	73/662	Herbert Thomas, Father	26 April 1873	Rev. W. E. Paige
2914	30 April 1873	High Vallance Esther Wilkins	Hugh Vallance Esther Wilkins 💍 1873/10690	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	25 24	Merivale Merivale	3 days 3 days	Church	73/2002		30 April 1873	Rev. J. Knowles
2916	5 May 1873	George Early Mary Florence Bolitho	George Early Mary Florence Bolitho 💍 1873/6019	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	26 20	Shands Track Broadfields	7 years 6 months	Wesleyan Church	73/459	Mary Bolitho, mother being authority	19 May 1873	Rev. H. Keall
2917	6 May 1873	James Ritson Mary Anna Earnshaw	James Ritchie Mary Ann Earnshaw 💍 1873/6916	Bachelor Spinster	Servant Servant	28 22	Christchurch Addington	2 weeks 6 weeks	In the house of Mr Earnshaw	73/410		6 May 1873	Rev. C. Fraser
2927	19 May 1873	James Bishop Anne Bundle	James Bishop Ann Brindle 💍 1873/6022	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 20	Papanui Papanui	15 years 15 years	Church	73/418	Dinah Bundle, mother	19 May 1873	Rev. L. Moore
2931	22 May 1873	Joseph Lindon Emma Craig	Joseph Lindon Emma Craze 💍 1873/6046	Widower Spinster	Plasterer Housekeeper	43 35	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 5 years	In the house of Mr Craig	73/418		22 May 1873	Rev. S. Aldred
2947	13 June 1873	Richard Tinjau Margaret Todd	Richard Morgan Margaret Todd 💍 1873/6934	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	29 22	Christchurch Addington	3 days 5 years	The Carati	73/924		13 June 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).