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 586

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
3336	13 August 1874	Albert Gunstan Hannah Hadfield	Albert Dunstall Hannah Hadfield 💍 1874/10876	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	24 23	Christchurch do	2 years 5 years	St Michaels Church	1707		2 August 1874	Rev. J. G. Edwards
3337	15 August 1874	Joseph Crosman Heward Margaret Lyons	Joseph Grosman Howard Margaret Lyons 💍 1874/10618	Bachelor Widow	Bushman	38 36	Rakaia Rakaia	4 years 3 months	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	74/1617		15 August 1874	Rev. J. W. Ecuyer
3338	7 August 1874	Martin Soltwayer Annie Fisher	Martin Gottmayer Annie Fisher 💍 1874/11377	Widower Spinster	Laborer Servant	44 29	Christchurch do	1 year 2 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	1878		17 August 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3339	7 August 1874	Edward Turnely Christina Shierlaw	Edward Murphy Christina Shierlaw 💍 1874/8	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Porter Servant	25 20	Christchurch do	3 years 9 years	Christchurch	2038	William Stewart Shierlaw, father	31 August 1874	Rev. E. Bond
3340	10 August 1874	Henry Howard Ellen Hawkins	Henry Howard Fitzsimons Ellen Hawkins 💍 1874/11131	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	36 22	Christchurch Lincoln	4 days 4 days	In the Church of St. Luke	1790		10 August 1874	Rev. E. A. Lingard
3341	18 August 1874	Dennis Sheehan Mary Halloran	Dennis Sheehan Mary O'Halloran 💍 1874/10615	Bachelor Widow	Laborer Dressmaker	34 35	Christchurch do	12 years 1 week	In the Roman Catholic Church	1616		18 August 1874	Rev. T. Belliard
3342	18 August 1874	Mathias Schimeisky Eulalie Luma Buchart	Matthew Schimeisky Eulalia Juliana Buchart 💍 1874/10621	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman Servant	24 20	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 5 days	In the Roman Catholic Church Christchurch	74/1618	Adam Buchart, father	18 August 1874	Rev. H. Belliard
3343	19 August 1874	Angus McDonald Elizabeth Thomson	Augustus Vanzandt Macdonald Elizabeth Thomson 💍 1874/11128	Bachelor Widow	Civil Engineer	32 28	Christchurch do	10 days 3 weeks	In the Church of St. Johns	1790		18 August 1874	Rev. E. A. Lingard
3344	19 August 1874	William Farland Amelia Banks	William Farland Amelia Banks 💍 1875/3250	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 20	Heathcote Valley Heathcote Valley	19 years 18 years	In the house of W. Farland	74/2039	Edward Banks, father	18 August 1874	Rev. J. Bullen
3345	19 August 1874	Pheter Olaf Enlund Anna Maria Leum	Pehter Olaf England Anna Maria Lund 💍 1874/13372	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	31 25	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 2 years	St Johns Church Christchurch	74/2564		19 August 1874	Rev. H. C. M. Watson
3346	21 August 1874	Henry Oxford Jane Myhils	Henry Oxford Jane Myhill 💍 1874/11014	Widower Spinster	Joiner	34 26	Christchurch do	9 years 1 year	In the house of Mr. Smallwood Colombo Road	74/1753		20 August 1874	Rev. R. Morton

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).