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 573

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Apr - Jun

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
3205	24 April 1874	Thomas Etherton Antoinette Hissen	Thomas Etherton Antoinette Nissen 💍 1874/11215	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Servant	23 23	Christchurch Do	3 years 5 weeks	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	1021		8 May 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3206	25 April 1874	Stephen Tasker Nora Green	Stephen Tasker Honorah Greeny 💍 1874/8986	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	27 24	Christchurch Do	2 weeks 4 weeks	In the Roman Catholic Church	74/1060		25 April 1874	Rev. J. Fru McDevitt
3207	25 April 1874	Thomas Crompton Lucy Birdling	Thomas Crompton Lucy Birdling 💍 1874/11506	Widower Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	36 25	Christchurch Do	12 years 3 days	In the Congregational Church	1023		25 April 1874	Rev. W. J. Habens
3208	25 April 1874	Henry Ford Mary Elizabeth Bradley	Henry Ford Mary Elizabeth Dady 💍 1874/9049	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 21	Christchurch Do	15 years 1 month	In St. Luke's Church	74/1081		25 April 1874	Rev. E. A. Lingard
3209	27 April 1874	Henry Lemon Maria Jane McPherson	Henry Lemon Maria Jane McPherson 💍 1874/11218	Bachelor Spinster	Turner Servant	30 23	Christchurch Do	3 days 3 days	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	1022		27 April 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3210	28 April 1874	John Treby Style Maria Ann Housler	John Truby Dingle Maria Kezia Hartley 💍 1874/7906	Bachelor Servant	Butcher	22 24	Christchurch Do	3 months 3 months	In the Wesleyan Church	74/691		1 May 1874	Rev. J. S. Smalley
3211	29 April 1874	William Edwin Barneth Dina Williams	William Edwin Barnett Eliza Williams 💍 1874/11491 William Smith Mary Williams 💍 1874/9544	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	28 26	Christchurch Do	8 months 8 months	In the house of Mr. Barneth	1017	Henry Boar, father	29 April 1874	Rev. W. J. Habens
3212	29 April 1874	David Davis Rachel Nathan	David Davis Rachel Nathan 💍 1874/10990	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	32 18	Christchurch Do	5 years 2 years	In the Jewish Synagogue	74/1185	Hyam Davis Nathan, father	29 April 1874	Rev. J. Zachariah
3213	30 April 1874	Albert Arthur Toner Elizabeth Ann Sparks	Albert Arthur Wickins Elizabeth Anne Sparks 💍 1874/13891	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	22 21	Halswell Do	2 years 8 years	In the Halswell Church			3 May 1874	Rev. C. Bowen
3214	1 May 1874	Frank Gerr Mary Butterfield	Frank Gerri Mary Gulden Highsted 💍 1874/11326	Bachelor Widow	Fisherman	41 47	Christchurch Do	10 months 18 months	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	1060		1 May 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3215	1 May 1874	Thomas Houghton Isabella Allan	Thomas Hough Isabella Allan 💍 1874/8470	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	25 28	Christchurch Do	1 month 1 month	In the house of J. Butler	74/887		1 May 1874	Rev. J. Buller

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).