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 574

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
3216	7 May 1874	William George Cunningham Christie Sarah Sills	William George Cunningham Sarah Sills 💍 1874/7900	Bachelor Widow	Constable	24 23	Christchurch Do	4 months 8 months	St. Michael's Church	74/689		2 May 1874	Rev. H. Edwards
3217	11 May 1874	William Henry Hayman Bessie Corrick	William Henry Hayman Bessie Corrick 💍 1874/8479	Bachelor Spinster	Ropemaker Servant	21 20	Christchurch Do	3 days 4 years	In the Wesleyan Chapel	74/890	Thomas Corrick, father	4 May 1874	Rev. J. Buller
3218	12 May 1874	Francis Cox Hannah Doble	Francis Lok Hannah Doble 💍 1874/11236	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	34 30	Christchurch Do	3 days 3 days	In the house of Thomas Spencers	1828		22 May 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3219	14 May 1874	Charles Hale Emma Pawley	Charles Hale Emma Pawley 💍 1874/9055	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	21 21	Christchurch Do	3 months 7 months	St. Luke's Church	74/1083		19 May 1874	Rev. R. Liggins
3220	15 May 1874	Frederick Kitts Annie Griffiths	Frederick King Annie Crist Johnson 💍 1874/13888	Bachelor Spinster	Cook Servant	37 35	Timaru Do	3 months 3 months	In the Wesleyan Church	74/35		25 May 1874	Rev. C. Bowen
3221	17 May 1874	Peter Clark Mary Russell	Peter Clark Mary Russell 💍 1874/7552	Bachelor Spinster	Cooper Servant	33 28	Christchurch Do	5 years 5 years	In the Presbyterian Church	74/570		13 May 1874	Rev. A. F. Douglas
3222	18 May 1874	Terry Mullin Mary Ann Ellen Wirth	Henry Mullin Mary Ann Elliot 💍 1874/8977	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	21 20	Christchurch Do	5 years 5 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	74/1057		6 May 1874	Rev. J. M. Renyer
3223	25 May 1874	Frederick Mainwaring Adelaide Sarah Blundell	Frederic Mainwaring Adelaide Sarah Blundell 💍 1874/9052	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	29 18	Christchurch Do	8 years 10 years	In the Church of St. Luke	74/1082	William Blundell, father	6 May 1874	Rev. H. C. Tu Waldron
3224	1 May 1874	John Bailey Eliza Meek Penfold	John Bailey Sarah Jeffs 💍 1874/9190	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	25 17	Christchurch Do	4 years 3 years	In the house of Richd Harris	74/990	Frances Susannah Meek, mother	8 May 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3225	4 May 1874	Borget Mehrtens Mina Sophia Marie Fritz	Borchert Mehrtens Mina Sophie Marie Fritz 💍 1874/7555	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 21	Papauni Tai Tapu	12 months 14 months	In the German Church Christchurch	74/571		9 May 1874	Rev. A. F. Douglas
3226	11 May 1874	William Smith Catherine Hayes	William Smith Catherine Hayes 💍 1874/8980	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Cook	29 29	Christchurch Do	4 months 4 months	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	74/1058		11 May 1874	Rev. J. M. Renyer

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).