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 598

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
3442	14 November 1874	Charles Martin Catherine Lawrence	Charles Martin Catherine Lawrence 💍 1874/12790	Widower Widow	Carpenter Nurse	57 43	Christchurch Christchurch	12 years 1 year	In the Avonside Church	74/2367		14 November 1874	Rev. H. Glasson
3443	14 November 1874	Joseph Wall Heurietta Beatrice Daly	Joseph Exall Henrietta Beatrice Daly 💍 1874/13849	Widower Spinster	Journalist	50 28	Christchurch Do	5 years 5 months	In the Church of St. Luke	2732		14 November 1874	Rev. R.A. Lingard
3444	9 November 1874	Thomas Boultin Sarah Amy Griffiths	Thomas Boulton Sarah Ann Griffiths 💍 1874/11611	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 22	Courtenay Do	2 years 2 years	Wesleyan Chapel Riccarton	1958		14 November 1874	Rev. J. Buller
3445	17 November 1874	Arthur Rippingale Elizabeth Susannah Magon	Arthur Rippengale Elizabeth Susannah Magon 💍 1874/11638	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	24 20	North Rakaia Tai Tapu	8 years 4 years	In the Burnham Church	74/1967	Karl Magon, father	14 November 1874	Revd H Stocker
3446	17 November 1874	Robert Strapp Agnes Hamilton	Robert Harper Agnes Hamilton 💍 1874/11707	Bachelor Spinster	Slater Servant	22 22	Christchurch Do	9 months 2 months	In the house of Rev. C. Fraen	1994		17 November 1874	Rev. C. Fraen
3447	2 December 1874	Benjamin Herdon Sarah Jane Foore	Benjamin Verdon Sarah Fowke 💍 1874/13399	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	32 22	Christchurch Do	8 years 8 years	In St. Johns Church	2574		7 December 1874	Rev. H.C. Watson
3448	23 November 1874	John Craft Chapple Ellen Forbes	John Craft Chapple Ellen Forbes 💍 1874/11536	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	30 22	Christchurch Do	7 years 4 years	In the Congregational Chapel	1932		23 November 1874	Rev. M.G. [UNCLEAR]
3449	24 November 1874	Carl Hausen Selina Wearing	Carl Hansen Selina Wearing 💍 1874/13393	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	30 22	Christchurch Do	4 days 4 days	In the Church	2572		24 November 1874	Rev. H.C. Watson
3450	24 November 1874	Erik West Anna Larsen	[No matching marriage registration has been located] See 1879/636	Widower Spinster	Carpenter Servant	55 34	St. Albans St. Albans	15 weeks 2 years	In St. Lukes Church Christchurch
3451	24 November 1874	George Henry Rimer Janetta Proud	George Henry Rimer Janet Proud 💍 1874/11713	Bachelor Spinster	House Steward Servant	26 25	Burnham Burnham	5 weeks 1 month	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser Christchurch	74/1994		24 November 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3452	24 November 1874	Robert Young Mary Nicol	"No marriage"	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	23 23	Christchurch Do	3 months 3 months	In the house of Mr. Nicol St Asaph Street		No Marriage	24 November 1874	Rev. A. F. Douglas

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).