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 562

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
3103	7 January 1874	Neil Campbell Muir Elizabeth Susannah Banks	Neil Campbell Muir Elizabeth Susannah Banks 💍 1874/6811	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	37 22	Christchurch Do	5 years 6 years	Sydenham St. Luke's Church	74/313		17 January 1874	Rev. E.A. Lingard
3104	20 January 1874	Thomas Wakeley Mary Edwards	Thomas Waketon Mary Edwards 💍 1874/7609	Bachelor Spinster	Dairyman Servant	25 22	Christchurch Do	3 days 4 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	74/590		20 January 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3105	21 January 1874	Archibald Yates Mary Smith	Archibald Yates Mary Smyth 💍 1874/7606	Bachelor Widow	Farmer Servant	30 28	Christchurch Do	6 years 6 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	74/589		21 January 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3106	21 January 1874	Andreas Blyth Laura Cecilia Ruise	Andreas Blytt Laura Cecilia Reese 💍 1874/7612	Bachelor Spinster	Jeweller	43 30	Avonside Do	2 months 10 days	In the house of Mr. Blyth	74/591		21 January 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3107	22 January 1874	Alexander Campbell Jane Philips	Alexander Campbell Jane Phillips 💍 1874/6856	Bachelor Widow	Sailor Housekeeper	37 40	Christchurch Do	9 years 9 years	In the house of Thos Philips, Durham St.	74/328		22 January 1874	Rev. J. Aldred
3108	23 January 1874	Matthias Barker Mary Ann Miller	Matthias Barlett Mary Ann Miller 💍 1874/13225	Bachelor Spinster	Bootfinisher Servant	28 29	Christchurch Do	2 years 2 years	St. Johns Church	25/15		23 January 1874	Rev. E.A. Lingard
3109	24 January 1874	William Hopkins Mary Florence Rice	William Hoskins Mary Florence Rice 💍 1874/13228	Widower Spinster	Comedian Comedian	55 25	Christchurch Do	14 weeks 14 weeks	St. Johns Church	2516		24 January 1874	Rev. J.C. Taus Watson
3110	26 January 1874	John Bailey Sarah Leff	John Bailey Sarah Jeffs 💍 1874/9190	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 20	Templeton Do	10 years 20 years	Prebbleton Church	74/528	Charles Leff, his father	26 January 1874	Rev. W.E. Paige
3111	27 January 1874	William Packard Mary [UNCLEAR] White	William Packard Mary Bligh White 💍 1874/6814	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Station Master	27 20	Christchurch Do	4 days 5 years	Lyttelton St. Lukes Church	74/314	Josiah White, father	27 January 1874	Rev. E.A. Lingard
3112	27 January 1874	William Bayley Hawker Clara Hart Peck	William Bayley Hawkins Clara Hart Peck 💍 1874/6901	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	25 21	Christchurch Do	1 month 2 years	In the Registrars Office	74/344		27 January 1874	Registrar of Marriages
3113	29 January 1874	Thomas Charles Williams Sarah Annie Hulme	Thomas Charles Williams Sarah Annie Hulme 💍 1874/6937	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Servant	34 23	Avonville Christchurch	10 months 11 months	Avonside Church	74/356		29 January 1874	Rev. H. Glasson

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).