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 567

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
3158	10 March 1874	James Holland Annie Jane Wheley	James Holland Annie Jane Whaley 💍 1874/7645	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the house of Rev. C Frazer Luau Street	74/602		10 March 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3159	10 March 1874	William Fabling Louisa Lewis	William Fabling Louisa Lee Smith 💍 1874/6844	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 10 years	St Lukes Church	74/324		24 March 1874	Rev. R. J. Sugard
3160	10 March 1874	John Stuart Toykes Ellen Bellow	John Stanton Ellen Mellett 💍 1874/6769	Bachelor Spinster	Coachman	21 18	Christchurch Do	6 years 3 years	In the house	74/609	Isaac Bellow, Father	24 March 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3161	11 March 1874	Lewis Levi Caro Rosella Karras	Lewis Levi Caro Rosetta Harris 💍 1874/10993	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	27 17	Christchurch Do	5 years 11 years	In the Jewish Synagogue	1184	Maurice Harris, Father	24 March 1874	Rev. Isaac Zachariah
3162	11 March 1874	Robert Findlay Agnes Crossan	Robert Findlay Agnes Crossen 💍 1874/7648	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	31 24	Christchurch Do	10 days 10 days	Christchurch	74/603		11 March 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3163	11 March 1874	Joseph Bertie Armstrong Annie Elizabeth Abbott	Joseph Beattie Armstrong Annie Elizabeth Abbott 💍 1874/6892	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	23 22	Christchurch Kaiapoi	12 years [UNCLEAR]	St Michaels Church	74/341		11 March 1874	Rev. H. Belcher
3164	12 March 1874	John Morris Catherine Sculley	John Morriss Catherine Sculley 💍 1874/8830	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 26	Lyttelton Christchurch	10 days 7 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	73/1008		12 March 1874	Rev. L. Bonvieux (The Registrar of Marriages, Lyttelton)
3165	13 March 1874	William Stocks Sophia Martindale	William Stocks Sophia Martindale 💍 1874/6946	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	35 22	Christchurch Weedons	3 years 10 years	Avonside Church	74/359		13 March 1874	Rev. J. S. Glasson
3166	14 March 1874	John Nicholas Machou Louisa Emma Torode	Jno Nicholas Machon Louisa Emma Torode 💍 1874/11794	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	29 25	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 3 days	In the house of Mr Nash Cashel Street	74/2022		14 March 1874	Rev. G. Bond
3167	14 March 1874	John Thomas Harris Bailey Henrietta Eldridge	John Thomas Daley Henrietta Eldridge 💍 1874/6868	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	32 23	Addington Christchurch	1 week 8 weeks	In the Roman Catholic Church	332		14 March 1874	Rev. J. Le Renzyen
3168	16 March 1874	Harry Ball Margaret Winbourne	Henry Ball Margaret Swinbourne 💍 1874/6871	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Dressmaker	28 29	Do Christchurch	6 months 14 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	74/333		16 March 1874	Rev. J. Le Renzyen

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).