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 585

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
3325	4 August 1874	Isaac Henry Adelaide Golding	Isaac Henry Adelaide Golding 💍 1874/10867	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	41 23	Christchurch Waltham	6 months 1 year	St Michaels Church	1703	John Thompson, having authority from trustees	4 August 1874	Rev. J. Edwards
3326	6 August 1874	Joseph Rowlands Martha Johnston	Joseph Rowlands Martha Johnston 💍 1874/11368	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 27	Christchurch Do	2 days 1 year	Christchurch	1875		7 August 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3327	8 August 1874	John Searle Smith Clara Barrow	John Searle Smith Clara Barrow 💍 1874/11398	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	21 years 7 years	Christchurch	1886		8 August 1874	Rev C. Fraser
3328	8 August 1874	John Dick Mary Ellis	John Dick Mary Ellis 💍 1874/11371	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	25 23	Christchurch Do	2 years 3 years	Christchurch	1896		8 August 1874	Rev C. Fraser
3329	8 August 1874	Alexander Bell Mary Philadelphia Williams	Alexander Bell Mary Philadelphia Williams 💍 1874/11134	Widower Spinster	Contractor	31 22	Christchurch Do	6 days 6 days	St Lukes Church	1792		8 August 1874	Rev. S.A. Lingard
3330	8 August 1874	Paul Andrews Elizabeth Ann Gahagan	Samuel Paul Andrews Elizabeth Ann Gahagan 💍 1874/10411	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer	38 28	Christchurch Do	12 days 20 years	[UNCLEAR] Gahagan	1516		8 August 1874	Rev. J. Buller
3331	8 August 1874	Otto Peez Helena Kremer	Otto Peez Helene Kremer 💍 1874/11380	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	30 25	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 10 years	Residence of Rev C. Fraser Christchurch	74/1879		8 August 1874	Rev C. Fraser
3332	11 August 1874	John Owen Austin Susan Townshend Partridge	John Owen Anstiss Susan Townsend Partridge 💍 1874/9988	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	31 19	Opawa Do	7 months 7 months	Opawa Church	1401	Ann Partridge, her mark, mother	13 August 1874	Rev. A.J. Cherrington [UNCLEAR]
3333	10 August 1874	Joseph William Bishop Jane Seales	William Joseph Bishop Jane Scales 💍 1874/10870	Widower Spinster	Labourer	47 24	Christchurch Christchurch	4 months 11 months	St Michaels Church	1704		10 August 1874	Rev. J. Edwards
3334	10 August 1874	John Graham Emma Lavery	John Graham Emma Lavery 💍 1874/5848	Widower Spinster	Baker	29 23	Christchurch Gresford	9 years 16 years	Addington	1706		13 August 1874	Very Rev. fine Jacobson
3335	12 August 1874	Charles Hayes Amelia Chillingworth	Charles Travis Amelia Chillingworth 💍 1874/10594	Bachelor Spinster	Mason	31 16	Christchurch Do	7 months 1 year	[UNCLEAR] Mrs Wilson	1609	Maria [UNCLEAR] Wilson, mother	12 August 1874	Rev. S. Ironside

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).