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 594

District of Christchurch Quarter ending Oct - Dec

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
3398	5 October 1874	Daniel Maylock Thira Edwards	Daniel Blaylock Thirza Edwards 💍 1874/12781	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Servant	31 28	St. Albans Christchurch	2 years 4 months	In Merivale Church	2364		5 October 1874	Rev. J. Knowlson
3399	6 October 1874	Joseph Marrett Catherine Tougan	Joseph Morrell Catherine Dougan 💍 1874/11755 Joseph Viscoch Catherine Dean 💍 1874/8353	Bachelor Widow	Railway Porter	33 26	Christchurch do	1 year	In the Roman Catholic Church	2008		6 October 1874	Rev. J.T. Belleard
3400	7 October 1874	Henry Layton Ellen Last	Henry Layton Ellen Last 💍 1874/5752	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman Cook	25 22	Christchurch do	6 years	Christchurch Church	2569		7 October 1874	Rev. J.C.M. Watkin
3401	8 October 1874	Thomas Anthony Moss Emma Georgina Boolescher	Thomas Anthony Moss Emma Georgina Boolischer 💍 1874/11578	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer Servant	21 21	Addington Addington	3 months 2 Months	In the Addington Church	74/1947		8 October 1874	Very Rev. Dean Jacobs
3402	9 October 1874	Edward Clemence Alice Hale Robinson	Edward Charman Alice Hall Robinson 💍 1874/11575	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer Servant	26 19	Addington do	3 months	Church	1946	There is no impediment having been shewn to the contrary	9 October 1874	Very Rev. Dean Jacobs
3403	10 October 1874	James Paterson Elizabeth Townseid Parkin	James Paterson Elizabeth McClyment 💍 1874/9562	Bachelor Spinster	Lawyer Servant	28 22	Opawa do	3 days	In the house of Mr. Vowles R.C. Parish Bay		authorized by Vowles	10 October 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3404	12 October 1874	James Bright Jemima Maguire	James Wright Jemima Manhire 💍 1874/12784	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Seamstress	23 22	Riccarton Addington	7 days	Lismore Street	1980		12 October 1874	Rev. B.W. Westbrook
3405	12 October 1874	George Collett Maryann Coulds	George Collett Margaret Coutts 💍 1874/11677	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Servant	21 20	Cambridge Terrace Christchurch	5 years	In the Primitive Methodist Chapel	2365	There is no impediment having been shewn to the contrary	12 October 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3406	14 October 1874	George Jameson Agnes Macfarlane	George Jameson Agnes MacFarlane 💍 1874/12550	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	24 20	Christchurch Rangiora	15 years 20 years	In the Scotch Church Rangiora	74/2286	John Macfarlane Father	14 October 1874	The Registrar of Marriages Rangiora
3407	15 October 1874	John Harper Harris Lucy Clarke	John Harper Morris Lucy Clarke 💍 1874/13843	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	28 22	Bungoland Christchurch	8 years 16 years	In St. Lukes Church	2730		15 October 1874	Rev. Edward V
3408	16 October 1874	John Wilson Kate Morgan	John Wilson Kate Morgan 💍 1874/13840	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 21	North Road North Road	15 years 4 years	In St. Lukes Church	2728		16 October 1874	Rev. S.R. Elliott

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).