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 584

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
3314	24 July 1874	William Hale Elizabeth Stafford	William Hall Elizabeth Stafford 💍 1874/11347	Bachelor Spinster	Labour Servant	21 20	Waltham Waltham	2 years 1 year	In the house of Rev C Fraser Tuam Street	74/1867	There is no person having authority to consent	24 July 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3315	24 July 1874	Daniel Corrie Henrietta Mutter	Daniel Gorrie Henrietta Collins Hunter 💍 1874/11353	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Salesman	30 24	Christchurch Do	3 days 2 weeks	In the house of mount Grey Mr. Cuff	1869		24 July 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3316	27 July 1874	Thomas Hay Agnes McLaughlan	Thomas Hay Agnes McLachlan 💍 1874/11359	Bachelor Spinster	Teleman	22 23	Christchurch Do	5 weeks 1 week	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	1870		27 July 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3317	28 July 1874	Henry Miver Maria Patraud	Henry Oliver Maria Putland 💍 1874/10861	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner Servant	25 20	Christchurch Do	3 months 11 months	St. Michael Church	1701	Therein uppers having authority to consent	28 July 1874	Rev. H.S. Edwards
3318	28 July 1874	Robert Bawfield Emily Feather	Robert Bamfield Emily Feather 💍 1874/10864	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	33 21	Christchurch Do	3 days 12 years	In the Church Lyttelton	1702		28 July 1874	Very Rev. Dean Jacobs
3319	29 July 1874	Joseph Story Emily McRonald	Joseph Lough Emily McDonald 💍 1874/13777	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter	37 37	Christchurch Do	2 weeks 2 weeks	In the house of Mr. Schmidt	2706		29 July 1874	Rev. A.R. Fitchett
3320	29 July 1874	Tyler Dawes Joblin Mary Elizabeth Harris	Edgar James Joblin Mary Elizabeth Harris 💍 1874/10417	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 24	Shirley Papanui	1 year 12 years	In the Wesleyan Church	1578		29 July 1874	Rev. J. Buller
3321	3 August 1874	Charles Geddes Flora Cameron	Charles Geddes Flora Cameron 💍 1874/10399	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	25 21	Christchurch Do	3 days 4 days	Durham St. Paul	1572		3 August 1874	Rev. A.F. Douglas
3322	4 August 1874	William White Fraser Fanny Boots	William White Fraser Fanny Boots 💍 1874/11362	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 months 3 days	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser Tuam Street	74/1873		4 August 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3323	4 August 1874	John Farland Sarah Fraser	John Farland Sarah Fraser 💍 1874/11374	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	28 21	Heathcote Valley Christchurch	18 years 11 years	In the house of Mr. John Farland	1877		4 August 1874	Rev. J. Buller
3324	4 August 1874	Charles Tilley Short Fanny Sheppard	Charles Tilley Short Fanny Sheppard 💍 1874/11386	Bachelor Spinster	Labour	25 25	Do Christchurch	7 weeks 7 weeks	In the house of Mr. Isaacs	1881		4 August 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).