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 611

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 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
3011	10 September 1873	Francis Lee Elizabeth Rhind	Francis Lee Elizabeth Rhind 💍 1873/11335	Bachelor Spinster	[UNCLEAR]	24 21	Christchurch Do	3 days 2 months	Church	73/2234		1 October 1873	Rev. C. Fraser
3021	4 October 1873	George Clark Mary Ann Roberts	George Clark Mary Ann Roberts 💍 1873/10699	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	24 21	Southbridge Merivale	3 years 2 years	Church	73/2005		18 October 1873	Rev. R. A. Lingard
3024	4 October 1873	Joseph Clarkson Jane Midmore	Joseph Clarkson Maddison Jane Midman 💍 1873/8488	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 26	Christchurch Avonside	2 years 2 years	Church	73/1247		4 December 1873	Rev. G. Cotterill
3029	17 October 1873	George Scott Betsy Smart	George Scott Betsy Smart 💍 1873/7027	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	21 21	Addingtons Leighton	3 years 1 month	In the Free Methodist Chapel	73/756		31 October 1873	Rev. R. Ward
3037	31 October 1873	Thomas Bybon Ingria Clements	Thomas Bubon Leighton Maria Clements 💍 1873/11065	Widower Widow	Engineer	38 40	Christchurch Addingtons	7 years 1 month	In the house of J. F. Albans	73/2139		4 December 1873	Rev. Canon Cotterill
3048	4 December 1873	Richard Leaver Hannah Jane Sanderson	Richard Leaver Hannah Jane Thompson Sanderson 💍 1873/8491	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor	21 19	Christchurch Avonside	2 years 2 years	Church	73/1248	Jane Sanderson, mother	5 December 1873	Rev. C. Bowen
3053	17 November 1873	John Moore Crehan Fanny Sarah Miller	John Moore Cochran Fanny Sarah Miller 💍 1873/8482	Bachelor Spinster	Runholder	39 22	Christchurch Papanui Road	7 days 7 days	In Riccarton Church	73/1245	[UNCLEAR] White	4 November 1873	Rev. C. Fraser
3062	10 December 1873	Henry Corrick Fanny Sarah Miller	John Moore Cochran Fanny Sarah Miller 💍 1873/8482	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	22 22	St Albans Papanni Road	9 months 7 days	Church	73/1238	J. F. Albans	15 December 1873	Rev. C. Fraser
3069	5 December 1873	James Morrison Jane McEachnie	James Morrison Jane McGachie 💍 1873/11353	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	33 24	Christchurch Addingtons	12 months 12 months	In the house of Mr Macdonold	73/2240	William Harrison, father	17 December 1873	Rev. C. Fraser
3070	5 December 1873	John Samuel Peers Clarke Emma Wallace	John Samuel Ross Clarke Emma Wallace 💍 1873/8533	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger Cook	26 24	Ferry Road Papanni Road	2 months 14 months	In the house of Mr Clarke	73/1264		20 December 1873	Rev. R. Hinton
3072	10 December 1873	William Robert Cocker Celia Catherine Harding	William Robert Cocker Celia Catherine Harding 💍 1874/6922	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Dressmaker	24 25	Woolston Do	2 months 2 months	Chapel	74/351		24 December 1873	Rev. S. Bond

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).