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 576

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
3238	2 May 1874	William Sedneyburgh Mary Jane Cumberworth	William Sydney Smith Mary Jane Cumberworth 💍 1874/9205	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Schoolmistress	21 25	St. Albans Colombo Road	13 years 1 year	In the house of Mr. Cumberworth	74/1133		June 3 1874	Rev. J. R. Wilchett
3239	9 May 1874	Edward Tough Annie Maria Cumberworth	Edward John Lough Annie Maria Cumberworth 💍 1874/9208	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 22	Christchurch Colombo Road	2 years 1 year	In the house of Mr. Cumberworth	74/1134		June 1 1874	Rev. J. R. Wilchett
3240	16 May 1874	Burton Shipley Martha Thompson	Burton Shipley Martha Thompson 💍 1874/11233	Widower Spinster	Labourer Servant	34 24	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 1 week	In the house of Mrs. Cram	1829		May 25 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3241	16 May 1874	Thomas Poole Kate Grove	Thomas Poole Kate Grove 💍 1874/13363	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Servant	25 30	Christchurch Do	18 months 18 months	St. Johns Church	2561		June 8 1874	Rev. H. C. Tu Watson
3242	16 May 1874	Richard Shoppee Mary Turner	Richard Thorpe Mary Turner 💍 1874/9058	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	28 31	Do Christchurch	9 months 9 months	St. Lukes Church	74/1084		May 22 1874	Rev. J. D. [UNCLEAR]
3243	16 May 1874	Robert Muuro Janet Munns	Robert Munro Janet Munro 💍 1874/11224	Widower [UNCLEAR]	Farmer	31 25	Hororata Greendale	18 months 2 years	In the house of Mr. Sikes	1824	Roderick Munro, Father	May 25 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3244	16 May 1874	Andrew Philpott Sophia Cusdin	Andrew Philpott Sophia Cusdin 💍 1874/5695	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	25 19	St. Albans Christchurch	22 years 3 years	Wesleyan Chapel	74/891	Thomas Cusdin, Father	May 28 1874	Rev. J. Buller
3245	May 27 1874	Robert White Agnes Adams	Robert White Agnes Adams 💍 1874/11206	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	26 20	Christchurch Do	6 days 6 days	St. Johns Church Amuri	1818	There is [UNCLEAR] here as [UNCLEAR] having authority to consent	May 29 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3246	27 May 1874	George Barrett Maria Budden	George Barrett Maria Pudden 💍 1874/8482	Widower Widow	Gardener Servant	31 26	Papanui Road Do	8 years 2 years	In the Church of St. Michaels	74/892		May 27 1874	Rev. J. Buller
3247	29 May 1874	John Hempskalk Betsy Suger Eliza Dahl	"Not solemnized by him" see 1875/951	Bachelor Spinster	Ship carpenter Servant	27 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 months 2 years	In St. Johns Church Christchurch				Rev H. C. M. Watson
3248	29 May 1874	George Barrett Maria Pudden	George Barrett Maria Pudden 💍 1874/8482	Widower Widow	Gardener Servant	31 26	Papanui Road Do	8 years 2 years	In the house of Rev. J. Buller	74/892

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).