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 565

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
3136	19 February 1874	Charles Marshalls Margaret Ann Cruickshank	Charles Marshall Margaret McCormick 💍 1874/7630	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	22 23	Christchurch Do	4 days 4 days	In the house of Police Detec	74/597		19 February 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3137	19 February 1874	William Willis Harriet Tunaley	William Willis Hannah Hallett 💍 1874/12445	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 20	Christchurch Do	4 days 4 days	In the house of	74/599	There is no person having authority to consent	19 February 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3138	19 February 1874	William Bowes Clarkson Susan Caygill	William Bower Clarkson Susan Caygill 💍 1874/6910	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	20 19	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 1 year	No person has authority to consent/In the house of W Caygill Tuam Street	74/347	John Caygill, Father	19 February 1874	Rev. J. Macfarlane
3139	20 February 1874	Thomas Littleparties Ellen Couley	Thomas Fitzpatrick Ellen Conley 💍 1874/6865	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 22	Christchurch Do	3 days 1 year	In the Roman Catholic Church	74/331		20 February 1874	Rev. J. Ecuyer
3140	21 February 1874	Henry Coster Emma Willcocks	Henry Cowper Emma Willcocks 💍 1874/7516	Bachelor Spinster	Bottler Servant	23 19	Christchurch Do	15 years 8 years	In	74/558	John Payne Willcocks, Father	9 March 1874	Rev. F. Knowles
3141	21 February 1874	Harry Childs Jane Mary Willcocks	Harry Childs Jane Mary Willcocks 💍 1874/7513	Bachelor Spinster	Coachsmith Servant	22 21	Christchurch Do	5 years 8 years	Church	74/557		9 March 1874	Rev. F. Knowles
3142	23 February 1874	John Thomas Burley Helen Elizabeth Harris	John Thomas Burbery Ellen Elizabeth Harris 💍 1874/6826	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 23	Christchurch Do	3 months 6 months	St. Lukes Church	74/318	There is no person having authority to consent	23 February 1874	Rev. E. A. Lingard
3143	23 February 1874	Malcolm Sheppard Cooke Alice Freeman	William Sheppard Cooke Alice Louisa Freeman 💍 1874/6943	Bachelor Spinster	Bookkeeper	34 24	Springfields Road Avonside	2 months 3 days	Church	74/358		11 March 1874	Rev. J. Glasson
3144	24 February 1874	Philip Bates Jessey Eugenie Bulley	Philip Bates Jessie Eugenie Bulley 💍 1874/7639	Bachelor Spinster	mariner	21 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 1 month	In the house of Rev C Fraser Tuam Street	74/600		24 February 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3145	25 February 1874	Frank William Eccleston Ellen Turk	Frank William East Ellen Monk 💍 1874/9193	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver Servant	30 21	Papanui Do	10 years 15 years	Church	74/1129		25 February 1874	Rev. T. S. Grace
3146	26 February 1874	Alfred Wells Isabella Hopkins	Alfred Webb Isabella Hopkinson 💍 1874/6829 Alfred Millard Isabella Tourell 💍 1874/10471	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	26 21	Christchurch Do	5 years 5 years	In the Church of St. Lukes	74/319		26 February 1874	Rev. E. A. Lingard

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).