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 563

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
3114	3 January 1874	Jesse Hall Annie Edgar	Jesse Hall Annie Edgar 💍 1874/13885	Bachelor Widow	Hotelkeeper Hotelkeeper	25 33	Christchurch Do	14 years 20 years	Riccarton Church	2744		31 January 1874	Rev. C. Bowen
3115	31 January 1874	John Twisleday Smith Mary Ann Beaumont	John Wesley Smith Mary Ann Beaumont 💍 1874/6817	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	25 21	Christchurch Do	5 years 5 years	St Lukes Church	74/315		31 January 1874	Rev. P.G. Lingard
3116	2 February 1874	William Gable Emma Greenhead	William Gable Emma Greenhead 💍 1874/6823	Bachelor Spinster	Servant	21 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 months 3 months	St Lukes Church	74/317		17 February 1874	Rev. C.G. Lingard
3117	2 February 1874	Gibbon Carew Fitzgibbon Elizabeth Dixon	Gibbon Carew Fitzgibbon Elizabeth Dixon 💍 1874/13231	Bachelor	Civil Engineer	27 26	Christchurch Christchurch	2 months 2 months	St Johns Church Christchurch	74/2517		17 February 1874	Rev. H.C.M Watson
3118	2 February 1874	James Brightmore Miranda Janes	James Brightmore Miranda Janes 💍 1874/6889	Bachelor Widow	Brickmason Housekeeper	29 28	Christchurch Christchurch	14 years 9 years	In St Michael's Church Christchurch	74/340		2 February 1874	Rev. H. J. Edwards
3119	2 February 1874	Richard Grose Mary Louisa Collins	Richard Grose Mary Louisa Collins 💍 1874/6949	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Laundress	21 17	Waltham Waltham	10 months 10 months	Opawa Church	74/360	William Collins, his x mark father	17 February 1874	Rev. Cholmondeley
3120	3 February 1874	George Easton Mary Corrick	George Euston Mary Corrick 💍 1874/12628	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Printer	22 18	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 12 years	In the house of Mr Turner Cranmer Square	74/2312	There is no person having authority to consent	3 February 1874	Rev. W. Lee
3121	4 February 1874	Richard Jebson Rachel Taylor	Richard Jebson Rachel Taylor 💍 1874/6886	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	33 29	Malvern Hills Lincoln Road	10 years 17 years	In St Michael's Church Christchurch	74/339		4 February 1874	Rev. H. J. Edwards
3122	4 February 1874	John Walter Garland Amy Winman Gadd	John Walter Garland Amy Minnan Gadd 💍 1874/6820	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	25 22	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 2 years	In the Church of St Luke's Christchurch	74/316		4 February 1874	Rev. E.A Lingard
3123	5 February 1874	William James Featherstone Sarah Moore	William James Featherston Sarah Moore 💍 1874/6931	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	26 25	Christ Church Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the home of Rev A. F. Douglas Christchurch	74/354		5 February 1874	Rev. A. Douglas
3124	5 February 1874	William Murray Henderson Susan McInnis	William Murray Henderson Susan McInnes 💍 1874/7615	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	28 23	Ferry Road Opawa	4 years 1 month	In the Scotch Church Tuam Street	74/592		5 February 1874	Rev. C. Fraser

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).