Intentions to Marry, 1874

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840386, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 561

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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
3092	1 January 1874	Joseph Hannam Rebecca Corkin	Joseph Hannam Rebecca Corkin 💍 1874/5737	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 16	Addington Do	14 months Do	Church, In the Primitive Methodist	74/571	Joshua Corkin, Father	1 January 1874	Rev. R. Ward
3093	3 January 1874	Roderick Manwell Catherine Wheeler	Roderick Manwell Catherine Wheeler 💍 1874/7600	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	30 21	Christchurch Do	10 years 21 years	Chapel	337		3 January 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3094	3 January 1874	Daniel Jemmett Elizabeth Allen	"not solemnized by Edwards"	Widower Spinster	Labourer	37 34	Christchurch	1 week 6 weeks	In St Michaels Church				Rev. J. H. Edwards
3095	3 January 1874	John Bailey Jane Trivale	John Baile Jane Trevitt 💍 1874/11500	Bachelor Widow	Farmer Servant	45 37	Harewood Road Christchurch	9 years 11 years	Church			January 3 1874	Rev. J. H. Edwards
3096	6 January 1874	William James Davis Evans Catherine Elizabeth Richards	William James Evans Catherine Elizabeth Richardson 💍 1874/6898	Bachelor	Hotel keeper	22 22	Christchurch Do	2½ years 5 months	In the Congregational Chapel	1420		January 6 1874	Rev. W. J. Habens
3097	6 January 1874	Robert McOwen Charlotte Stace	Robert McOwen Charlotte Stace 💍 1874/6934	Bachelor Spinster	Banker	28 21	Christchurch [from] Clutha Ferry Christchurch	18 days 21 years	In Avonside Church	74/343		January 6 1874	Rev H Glasson
3098	7 January 1874	Jacob Nathanel Ellenberger Marie Griebel	Jacob Nathanael Ellenberger Maria Griebel 💍 1874/7603	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	35 25	Christchurch [from] Kaiapoi Christchurch	4 days 3 years	In the house of Rev C Fraser, Christchurch	74/355		January 6 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3099	7 January 1874	George Irvine Elizabeth Nicholson	George Irvine Elizabeth Nicholson 💍 1874/6928	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter & Miner Servant	36 32	Christchurch [from] Otago Christchurch	14 days 6 years	In the house of Rev A F Douglas, Christchurch.	74/588		January 7 1874	Rev A F Douglas
3100	7 January 1874	Ate Thomsen Ofelia Petersen	Alsed Thomsen Sophia Jansen 💍 1874/13222	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	30 22	Christchurch Christchurch	12 months 16 months	In the house of Rev. A.F. Douglas Christchurch	74/2514		January 7 1874	Rev. A. F. Douglas
3101	14 January 1874	Andrew Reid Isabella Stewart	Andrew Reid Isabella Stewart 💍 1874/14160	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	29 28	Christchurch [from] 'Timuka' Christchurch	1 week 1 week	In the Scotch Church, Tuam St	74/587		14 January 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3102	16 January 1874	John Baylee Esther Catherine Grudley	John Baylee Esther Catherine Gridley 💍 1874/6808	Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper	41 28	Christchurch Do	10 years 2 years	In the Scotch Church	74/587		January 14 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
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These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

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).