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 599

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 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
2961	1 July 1873	John Franklin McMullen Cecilia Margaret Rose Younis	John Franklin McMullen Cecilia Margaret Rose 💍 1873/10909	Bachelor Spinster	Banker Servant	23 29	Christchurch Do	2 years Do	St Luke's Church	73/2053		1 July 1873	Rev E A Lingard
2962	2 July 1873	John Frude Caroline Petersen	John Frude Caroline Petersen 💍 1873/11134	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	28 21	Prebbleton Do	8 weeks Do	In the house of Rev C Fraer	73/2163		2 July 1873	Rev C Fraer
2963	3 July 1873	William Henry Parker Miriam Nickery	William Henry Parker Marion Vickery 💍 1873/11140	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	30 21	Riccarton Do	8 years 21 years	In the house of Rev C Fraer	73/2165		3 July 1873	Rev C Fraer
2964	9 July 1873	Charles Edward Fooke Elizabeth Hannah Scoth	Charles Edward Fowke Elizabeth Hannah Scott 💍 1873/11137	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Keeper Servant	24 18	Christchurch Christchurch	5 months 1 week	In the house of Rev C Fraer	73/2164	Scoth, father	9 July 1873	Rev C Fraer
2965	4 July 1873	Lucien Brocherie Mary Catherine Fellon	Lucin Brocherie Mary Catherine Fallon 💍 1873/4664	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	28 26	Christchurch Do	3 days 3 days	In the Roman Catholic Church	73/148		4 July 1873	Rev I M Ecuyer
2968	13 July 1873	Alexander Malcolm Brown Miriam Blackmire	Alexander Malcolm Brown Miriam Blackmore 💍 1873/11152	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	23 24	Christchurch Do	8 weeks 3 weeks	In the house of Rev C Fraer	73/2169		13 July 1873	Rev C Fraer
2969	16 July 1873	George Herd Elizabeth Anderson	George Herd Elizabeth Anderson 💍 1873/6964	Widower Widow	Labourer Servant	37 40	[UNCLEAR] address Christchurch	7 years 2 years	In the Primitive Methodist Chapel	73/324		16 July 1873	Rev R Ward
2970	19 July 1873	Joseph Cricks Elizabeth Mellshimer	Joseph Cricks Elizabeth Mellshimer 💍 1873/6823	Widower Spinster	Gardener Dressmaker	64 55	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 2 years	In the Baptist Chapel	73/084		19 July 1873	Rev R. Marten
2971	21 July 1873	Charles Samuels Hannah Rice	Charles Samuels Hannah Rice 💍 1873/10738	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker [UNCLEAR]	25 20	Christchurch Christchurch	9 months 11 years	St Michael's Church	73/2019	Keziah Rice, mother	21 July 1873	Rev. H. J. Edwards
2972	22 July 1873	Charles Patterson Elizabeth Hawkins	Charles Patterson Elizabeth Hawkins 💍 1873/10912	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker [UNCLEAR]	28 22	Christchurch Do	3 days 3 days	In St Luke's Church	73/2084		22 July 1873	Rev E A Lingard
2973	22 July 1873	Robert Thomson Ellen Craze	Robert Thomson Ellen Craze 💍 1873/11143	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 25	Christchurch Do	3 days 10 months	In the Scotch Church	73/2166		22 July 1873	Rev C Fraer

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).