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 583

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
3303	8 July 1874	Harvey William Griffiths Mary Kinsman	Harvey William Griffits Mary Kinsman 💍 1874/11341	Bachelor Spinster	Warder Tailoress	28 21	Lyttelton Road Christchurch	15 months 11 months	Residence of the bride	1865		8 July 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3304	18 July 1874	John Kirby Highsted Mary Ann Codon	John Kerby Highsted Mary Ann Coudan 💍 1874/10609	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	27 28	Papauni Christchurch	17 years 10 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	74/1614		18 July 1874	Rev. W. Ecuyer
3305	20 July 1874	James Wilkinson Ellen McLarky	James Wilkinson Ellen McLarkey 💍 1874/11137	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	32 27	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 5 days	In St. Luke's Church Christchurch	74/1793		20 July 1874	Rev. E. A. Lingard
3306	20 July 1874	John Gough Annie Storey	John Gough Annie Hooey 💍 1874/10612	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler Servant	29 21	Christchurch Do	11 years Do	In the Roman Catholic Church	1615		20 July 1874	Rev. J. Vaughan
3307	20 July 1874	Thomas Haser Baldwin Sarah Barker	Thomas Fraser Baldwin Sarah Baker 💍 1874/13369	Bachelor Spinster	Banker	29 29	Christchurch Do	1 year 27 years	In the Church	2563		20 July 1874	Rev. H. E. Watson
3308	21 July 1874	Harry Archer Ellen Maria Willis	Harry Archer Ellen Maria Willis 💍 1874/11344	Bachelor Spinster	Miller	30 17	Christchurch Do	3 days Do	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	1866	Elizabeth Willis, mother	21 July 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3309	22 July 1874	Edwin James Tuck Rachel Pleasance Jackson	Edwin James Lush Rachel Pleasance Taylor 💍 1874/11512	Bachelor Spinster	Coachbuilder	28 22	Christchurch Do	8 years Do	In the house of Thos Taylor	1924		22 July 1874	Rev. H. T. Hawkins
3310	22 July 1874	James Wright Elizabeth Thomas	James Wright Elizabeth Thomas 💍 1874/10591	Widower Spinster	Carpenter Servant	26 22	Christchurch Do	12 years Do	In the house of Rev. A. Macfarlane	1608		22 July 1874	Rev. A. Macfarlane
3311	23 July 1874	John Kelly Mary Welsh	John Kelly Mary Walsh 💍 1874/8842	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	28 25	Christchurch Do	2 years 3 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	1612		22 July 1874	Rev. J. W. Eguyer
3312	24 July 1874	James Lowen Annie Tucria Buchanan	James Gower Annie Maria Buchanan 💍 1874/10408	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman Servant	29 19	Christchurch Do	5 days 6 months	In the house of Lyttleton Church	1345	Sarah Jane Buchanan, mother	24 July 1874	Rev. J. Buller
3313	24 July 1874	George Cooke Elizabeth Waine	George Cook Elizabeth Wain 💍 1874/11350	Widower Spinster	Labourer Servant	42 22	Christchurch Christchurch	6 months 3 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	74/1868		24 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).