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 575

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
3227	7 May 1874	Henry George Herbert Anna Kennard	Henry George Herbert Anna Kennard 💍 1874/7519	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 23	Christchurch St. Albans	11 years 14 years	In the Residence	74/559		11 May 1874	Rev. J. Knowles
3228	11 May 1874	John William Scott Alice Wiley	John William Scott Alice Rielly 💍 1874/8983	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Servant	32 22	Christchurch Do	5 months 2 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	74/659		11 May 1874	Rev. J. M. Regers
3229	12 May 1874	Charles Edward Salter Louisa Jane Biggs	Charles Edward Salter Louisa Jane Biggs 💍 1874/8827	Bachelor Spinster	Articled Clerk	23 24	Lyttelton Road Do	1 week 11 years	In the Wesleyan Church Durham Street	74/1007		12 May 1874	Rev. J. Buller
3230	12 May 1874	John Bushop Rutland Eleanor Ellis	John Bishop Rutland Eleanor Elliott 💍 1874/8473	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Governess	25 27	Christchurch Do	11 years 7 years	In the Wesleyan Church	74/688		12 May 1874	Rev. J. Buller
3231	12 May 1874	Charles Augustus Haines Margaret Felton Collie	Charles Augustus Haines Margaret Fenton Collins 💍 1874/11221	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	26 18	Christchurch Do	5 years 10 years	In the Scotch Church	1023	Annie Collie, mother	12 May 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3232	13 May 1874	James Reynolds Elizabeth Eleanor Wilson	James Reynolds Elizabeth Eleanor Wilson 💍 1874/7909	Bachelor Spinster	Stoker Governess	28 24	Christchurch Do	8 months 4 months	In St.	74/692		13 May 1874	Rev. W. J. Edwards
3233	13 May 1874	William John Stevens Eliza Evans	William John Stevens Elizabeth Ewan 💍 1874/9061	Bachelor Spinster	Coachbuilder Dressmaker	27 21	Christchurch Do	5 weeks 3 months	In St. Lukes Church	74/683	Jane is Mother having authority from her husband	2 May 1874	Rev. E. A. Lingard
3234	14 May 1874	John Reis Eliza Ann Leadley	John Keir Eliza Ann Leadley 💍 1874/8215	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 19	Courtenay [UNCLEAR]	7 years [UNCLEAR]	In the Methodist New Church	74/800	Christopher Leadley, father	14 May 1874	Rev. S. Macfarlane
3235	15 May 1874	Henry James Shaw Alice Mary Ann Abbott	Henry James Shaw Alice Mary Abbott 💍 1874/7903	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Governess	22 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 3 years	In St. Michaels Church	74/690		15 May 1874	Rev. J. Buller
3236	15 May 1874	John Hee Eleanor Jane Cooper	John Free Eleanor Jane Cooper 💍 1874/8476	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 26	Christchurch Do	9 weeks 3 years	In the house of Mr. Cooper	74/889		15 May 1874	Rev. J. Buller
3237	18 May 1874	Andrew Liddell Ada Jane Staples	Andrew Liddell Ada Jane Staples 💍 1874/8494	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	30 18	Woolston Do	3 years 8 years	In the Baptist Chapel	74/896	Frederick Staples, father	18 May 1874	Rev. R. Venmore

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).