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 568

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
3169	16 March 1874	John McGregor Mary Walker	John McCrory Mary Walker 💍 1874/7651	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Servant	35 34	Riccarton Do	2 years 3 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	74/606		16 March 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3170	18 March 1874	Francis Henry Yayler Sarah Parker	Francis Henry Taylor Sarah Parker 💍 1874/11791	Bachelor Spinster	Bookkeeper	24 18	Christchurch Do	3 years 12 years	In the Wesleyan Church	2021	William Parker, father	18 March 1874	Rev. J. Buller
3171	19 March 1874	Cyprian Wynyard Bridge Georgina Barker	Cyprian Wyngard Bridge Georgina Mary Barker 💍 1874/13234	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	28 26	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 2 years	In St. John's Church Christchurch	74/258		19 March 1874	Rev. H. C. M Watson
3172	20 March 1874	Thomas Andrews Rebecca Crane	Thomas Andrews Rebecca Craze 💍 1874/6841	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer Domestic	21 22	Christchurch Do	7 years 1 year	Trinity Church	74/323		20 March 1874	Rev. P. A. Lingard
3173	21 March 1874	John Coldstream Eda Williams	John Coldstream Ida Williams 💍 1874/7657	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	32 20	Christchurch Do	3 days 3 days	In the Scotch Church	74/606	There is [UNCLEAR] person having authority to consent	21 March 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3174	21 March 1874	Arthur John Wilkinson Rachel Churchill	Arthur John Watkinson Rachel Churchill 💍 1874/7660	Bachelor Spinster	Cook Nurse	27 22	Templeton Templeton	2 months 2 months	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser Tuam Street	74/607		21 March 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3175	23 March 1874	Stephen Tatham Mitchell Celia Anna Mosley	Stephen William Mitchell Celia Anna Northey 💍 1874/9040	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker Cook	21 21	Waltham Waltham	7 months 7 months	In St. Luke's Church			23 March 1874	Rev. P. A. Lingard
3176	24 March 1874	William Jonathan Faber Mary Theresa Connolly	William J Fabor Mary Theresa Connolly 💍 1874/6874	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	30 25	Christchurch Do	3 days 3 days	In the Roman Catholic Church	74/334		24 March 1874	Rev. J. J. Dwyer
3177	24 March 1874	Joseph Hoove Euphemia Cooper	Joseph Noone Euphemia Cooper 💍 1874/6877	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	38 35	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the Roman Catholic Church	74/335		24 March 1874	Rev. J. J. Dwyer
3178	25 March 1874	Henry Killner Jessie McHalesk	Henry Killner Jessie McHutcheson 💍 1874/6916	Widower Spinster	Clerk	39 26	Christchurch Do	10 years 11 years	In the house of Mr. Hutchins	74/349		25 March 1874	Rev. R. Thornton
3179	25 March 1874	John Holmes Julia Diggle	John Holmes Julia Diggle 💍 1874/7663	Bachelor Spinster	Stone Cutter Machinist	24 21	Christchurch Do	4 years 1 year	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	74/608		25 March 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).