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 581

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Jul - Sep

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
3202	21 April 1874	Charles Cole Clara Selina Wright	"Not called for"
3247	24 May 1874	John Hempskalk Betsy Suger Elise Dahl	"Not called for" see 1875/951
3277	28 June 1874	Walter John Williams Jane King	Walter John Williams Jane King 💍 1874/9658	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer	35 24	Burnham Cust	1 month 6 years	Church Avonside	1291		8 July 1874	Rev H Elassing
3284	1 July 1874	Osmond Septimus Wigan Annie Gardner Fishbourne	Osmond Septimus Wigan Annie Gardiner Fishbourne 💍 1874/10852	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman Servant	34 27	Christchurch Cust	1 year 1 year	Church in the Cust Church	74/2819 & 1698 Rangiora		8 July 1874	Rev. Canon Dudley
3285	2 July 1874	William Marshall Annie Doyle	William Marshall Anna Doyle 💍 1874/10600	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman Servant	34 20	Christchurch Do	1 year 1 year	In the Roman Catholic Church	1611	There is no person having authority to consent	12 July 1874	Rev. S. The Goygen
3286	3 July 1874	John James Implemence Todd Maria Alice Service	John James Fitzclarence Dodd Maria Alice Jarvis 💍 1874/11356	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	20 22	Christchurch Do	6 months 1 year	In the R. Catholic Church	1611	There is his person having authority to consent	12 July 1874	Rev. S. The Goygen
3287	4 July 1874	John Arcus Jessie McKay	John Armstrong Jessie McKay 💍 1874/8194	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	34 22	Christchurch Do	6 months 4 years	In the R. Presbyterian Church	493		12 July 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3288	4 July 1874	Edward George Todricy Isabella Theobold	Edward George Widgery Isabella McGill 💍 1874/11389	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	21 21	Christchurch Do	8 months 4 years	Presbyterian Church	1680		12 July 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3289	7 July 1874	William Henry Jimpson Harriet Ann Valleth	William Harry Simpson Harriet Ann Tallet 💍 1874/11329 William Lewis Coe Harriet Ann Billman 💍 1874/12331	Bachelor Spinster	Jockey Servant	25 22	Christchurch Do	8 months 21 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	1882		15 July 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3290	14 July 1874	Edward O'Connor Maria Legge	Edward O'Connor Maria Legge 💍 1874/10603	Widower Spinster	Schoolmaster Servant	28 21	Christchurch Ferry Road	8 months 1 year	In the Roman Catholic Church	1612		19 July 1874	Rev. S. The Goygen
3291	18 July 1874	John Clarke Martha Clarke	John Clarke Martha Clarke 💍 1874/11365	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Housemaid	31 29	Christchurch Do	6 years 5 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	1874		25 July 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).