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 590

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
3380	18 September 1874	William Silby Ann Warren	William Sibbond Fieldgate Ann Warren 💍 1874/9769	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	32 29	Chrischurch do	7 months 12 months	In St Lukes Church	1327		18 September 1874	Rev S.A. Levy and V
3381	19 September 1874	James Henry Wainwright Jane Stockley	James Henry Ainsworth Jane Stockley 💍 1874/11413	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	24 19	Chrischurch do	1 year 1 year	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	1890	There is no person having authority to consent	19 September 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3382	19 September 1874	William James formerly Cresswell Mary Cresswell	William James Donnelly Mary Cresswell 💍 1874/11668	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Servant	22 18	Chrischurch do	2 years 2 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	1978	There is no person having authority to consent	19 September 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3383	22 September 1874	John McBride Catherine Graham	John McBride Catherine McMahan 💍 1874/11752	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	30 27	Christchurch do	2 years 3 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	2007		22 September 1874	Rev. H. Belliard
3384	22 September 1874	Charles Hyde Fanny Gilbert	Charles Hyde Fanny Gilling 💍 1874/13834	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	22 19	Christchurch do	6 years 6 years	In the house of Mr Gilling	2726	Robert Billing Father	22 September 1874	Rev. H. Belliard
3385	23 September 1874	Samuel Bradford Ellen Arthur	Samuel Brentford Ellen Arthur 💍 1874/11416	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	22 19	Papanui do	8 years 2 months	St Lukes Church	1891	There is no person having authority to consent	23 September 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3386	23 September 1874	Charles Bashford Amelia Ann Lawrence	Charles Bashford Amelia Ann Lawrence 💍 1874/13387	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Servant	25 18	Christchurch do	3 years 1 year	St Lukes Church	2570	Catherine Lawrence mark mother	23 September 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3387	25 September 1874	Joseph John Jacobs Ellen Luby	Joseph John Tacon Ellen Lublin 💍 1874/9991	Bachelor Widow	Sailor	34 21	Ferry Road do	6 months 6 months	Christchurch Church	1402		25 September 1874	Rev. S. Ironside
3388	26 September 1874	Martin Kevin Margaret Moran	Martin Nevin Margaret Moran 💍 1874/10630	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	30 25	Chrischurch do	4 years 8 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	1621		26 September 1874	Rev. H. Belliard
3389	26 September 1874	William Logan Anderson Charlotte Weir Samuel	William Logan Anderson Charlotte Weir Gemmel 💍 1874/14184	Widower Spinster	Slater Servant	34 18	Chrischurch do	6 months 6 months	In St Lukes Church	2729	There is no person having authority to consent	26 September 1874	Rev. S.A. Bingham
3390	28 September 1874	Thomas Acland Flora Margaret Smith	Thomas Acland Flora Margaret Waitt 💍 1874/13831	Bachelor Spinster	Stockowner	28 23	Southbridge Chrischurch	2 years 2 years	In the Church of St. Luke Chrischurch	2725		28 September 1874	Rev. S.A. Bingham

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).