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 596

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
3420	28 October 1874	Francis Henry Schreider Harriett Ann Earnshaw	Francis Henry Schneider Harriet Ann Earnshaw 💍 1874/11683	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 20	Christchurch Do	3 days 5 years	St Michaels Church	1984	Jonathan Earnshaw, father	28 October 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3421	2 November 1874	Alexander H. Kinn Margt Wilson	Alexander McKinnon Margaret Wilson 💍 1874/11686 Alexander Waugh Sarah Wilson 💍 1874/10639	Bachelor Spinster	Currier	26 17	Woolston Do	10 years 10 years	In the house of Thos Wilson	1985	Thomas Wilson, father	2 November 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3422	2 November 1874	Thomas Smith Dinah Bundle	Thomas Smith Dinah Bundle 💍 1874/11533	Widower Widow	Bricklayer Nurse	52 40	Papanui Road Malvern	3 months 1 week	In the Congregational Church	1981		2 November 1874	Rev. W. J. Habens
3423	3 November 1874	Edwin Thos Machin Clara Ella Eccles	Edwin James Thomas Clara Ella Eccles 💍 1874/11581	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	30 24	Christchurch Do	14 days 14 days	St Michaels Church	1948		3 November 1874	Rev. H. Edwards
3424	3 November 1874	William Warrington Brent Trood Rogers Amelia Frances Inwood	William Warringdon Brent Trood Rogers Amelia Frances Inwood 💍 1874/12799	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	33 25	Christchurch New Brighton	1 year 3 years	In the Avonside Church	74/2370		3 November 1874	Rev. H. Glasson
3425	4 November 1874	John Horn Elizabeth Holt	John Horn Elizabeth Holt 💍 1874/11617	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 26	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 12 years	In the house of Mr Holt St Asaph Street	74/1960		4 November 1874	Rev. J. Buller
3426	4 November 1874	John Holt Ellen Organ	John Hollow Ellen Organ 💍 1874/11689	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 1 week	In the Scotch Church Tuam Street	74/1986		4 November 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3427	5 November 1874	Walter Bradshaw Agnes Kemp	Watson Braithwaite Agnes Kemp 💍 1874/11701	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Cleaner	30 26	Waltham Do	6 months 3 weeks	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	1990		5 November 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3428	5 November 1874	James Trythall Janet Sinclair	James Wyman Janet Sinclair 💍 1874/11692	Bachelor Spinster	Bellman Servant	25 21	Lyttelton Do	1 week 5 days	In the house of Hy Lyttelton Esq	1987		5 November 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3429	6 November 1874	Alexander Hall Margaret Robinson	Alexander Hall Margaret Rorrison 💍 1874/11710	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinetmaker Milliner	21 21	Christchurch Do	3 weeks 3 weeks	In the house of Luke Matt	1993		6 November 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3430	6 December 1874	Sydney Campbell Martha Fitzpatrick	Sydney Campbell Martha Fitzpatrick 💍 1874/11719	Widower Spinster	Farmer Servant	42 26	Burnham Do	1 year 5 weeks	In the house of Luke Matt	1996		1 December 1874	Rev. C. Fraser

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).