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 603

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
2953	18 June 1873	John Clark Lea Eliza Simmonds	John Clark Lea Eliza Simmons 💍 1873/10573							73/1961		3 July 1873	Rev. R. Morton
2954	19 June 1873	James Edward Webster Jeannette Bowden	James Edward Webster Jeannette Bowden 💍 1873/6958							73/732		4 July 1873	Rev. L. Moore
2964	4 July 1873	James Yeates Miranda Ashley Hervey	James Yeates Miranda Ashley Hervey 💍 1873/6745	Bachelor Spinster	Platelayer Servant	33 18	Riccarton Riccarton	9 months 2 years	In the Wesleyan Chapel St Albans	73/657	Ellen Norton Mother	4 July 1873	Rev. A. R. Fitchett
2966	8 July 1873	James Durbin Cotton Emily Bowley	James Turvin Cotton Emily Bowley 💍 1873/8473	Bachelor Spinster	Gardner Servant	21 22	Riccarton Riccarton	4 years 4 years	Riccarton Church	73/1242		8 July 1873	Rev. C Bowen
2975	22 July 1873	John Pearson Cooper Amy Mary Hawkins	John Pearson Cooper Amy Mary Hawkins 💍 1873/10696	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	21 23	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years 8 years	Merivale Church	73/2004		22 July 1873	Rev. L. Knowles
2978	25 July 1873	Charles Edward Maurice Meares Amy Dearden	Charles Edward Maurice Meares Amy Dearden 💍 1873/6961	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 21	Lincoln Road Papanui	3 weeks 2 years	Papanui Church	73/733		25 July 1873	Rev. L. Moore
2981	28 July 1873	George Henry Maley Emily Simcock	George Henry Morley Sarah Emily Sinnock 💍 1873/6748	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	33 23	St. Albans St. Albans	3 years 9 years	in the house of W. Simcock St Albans	73/658		11 August 1873	Rev. A. R. Fitchett
2982	30 July 1873	Robert Stephens Sarah Ann Chapman	Robert Stephens Sarah Annie Chapman 💍 1873/10744	Bachelor Spinster	SAwyer	29 18	Christchurch Addington	1 week 15 months	In AddingtonChurch	73/2021	William Chapman Father	30 July 1873	Rev. F. G. Brittan
2986	4 August 1873	Henry James Ford Emily Ann Gadd	Henry James Ford Emily Ann Gadd 💍 1873/6979	Bachelor Spinster	Mason	22 20	Hillsborough Do	5 years 11 years	in the Opawa Church	73/739	Elijah Gadd Father	19 August 1873	Rev. I. S. Cholmondeley
2988	5 August 1873	Alexander Edmund Freeman Jane Day	Alexander Edmund Freeman Jane Day 💍 1873/6976	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer Servant	24 31	Ferry Road Do	2 years 3 weeks	in St. Johns Church Opawa	73/738		5 August 1873	Rev. I. S. Cholmondeley
2990	6 August 1873	George Reeve Sarah Jane Guy	George Reeve Sarah Jane Guy 💍 1873/6949	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	24 22	Templeton Templeton	3 days 6 years	in the Wesleyan Leeston Chapel Springston	73/729		6 August 1873	Rev. W. Keale

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).