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 588

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 1874

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
3358	31 August 1874	David Davis Rachel Nathan	David Davis Rachel Nathan 💍 1874/10990	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	32 18	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 2 years	Registrar's Office	1745	Nathan, Father	31 August 1874	Registrar of Marriages (B.Parkerson)
3359	31 August 1874	Lewis Levi Caro Rosetta Harris	Lewis Levi Caro Rosetta Harris 💍 1874/10993	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	27 19	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 11 years	Registrar's Office	1746	Maurice Harris, Father	31 August 1874	Registrar of Marriages (B.Parkerson)
3360	31 August 1874	David Robertson Sarah King	David Robertson Sarah King 💍 1874/10402	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	26 26	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 8 years	St. Paul's Church	1543		31 August 1874	Rev. R. S. Douglas
3361	1 September 1874	William White Martha Patton	William White Martha Patton 💍 1874/13375	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	25 23	Christchurch Christchurch	9 years 9 years	St. John's Church	2563		16 September 1874	Rev. H. C. M. Watson
3362	1 September 1874	Richard Hewer Sarah Lunn	Richard Hewer Sarah Lunn 💍 1874/13894	Bachelor Spinster	Lieutenant	33 18	Riccarton Riccarton	5 years 10 years	Riccarton Church	2747	William Lunn, Father	16 September 1874	Rev. C. Bowen
3363	2 September 1874	Thomas McGreevy Mary Rowe	Thomas McCreevy Mary Aultim Rowe 💍 1874/10414	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Governess	24 22	Christchurch Addington	3 days 5 weeks	Barracks	1547	Fresh notice given	16 September 1874	Rev. H. J. C. Gilbert
3364	2 September 1874	William Taylor Jane Sale	William Taylor Jane Dale 💍 1874/7 William Taylor Jane Mulvaney 💍 1874/10045	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	21 21	Christchurch Barbadoes Street	2 years 2 years	House of W. Reader	2037		22 September 1874	Rev. G. Bond
3365	2 September 1874	Alexander Wilson Margaret Collins	Alexander Wilson Margaret Collins 💍 1874/11401	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner Servant	21 22	Christchurch Tuam Street	10 years 7 years	House of Rev. C. Fraser	1886		22 September 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3366	4 September 1874	Edward Ravenhill Sally Ann Grantham	Edward Ravenhill Sally Ann Grantham 💍 1874/11404	Bachelor Spinster	Barman Servant	24 26	Christchurch Tuam Street	11 years 12 years	House of Rev. C. Fraser	1887		4 September 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3367	4 September 1874	Thomas McGreevy Mary Aulbin Rowe	Thomas McCreevy Mary Aultim Rowe 💍 1874/10414	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Governess	24 22	Christchurch Addington	4 days 2 months	House of Rev. J. Buller	1547		4 September 1874	Rev. J. Buller
3368	5 September 1874	George Wright Ann Jane Henderson	George Wright Ann Jane Henderson 💍 1874/10147	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	28 19	Springston Christchurch	2 years 4 weeks	Burnham Church	1454	Thomas Henderson, Father	5 September 1874	Rev. W. Stocken

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).