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 599

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
3453	27 November 1874	Peter Patterson Marian Chapman	Peter Patterson Marian Chapman 💍 1874/11716	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 21	Addington Christchurch	1 year 10 months	Other - See Remarks	1995		29 November 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3454	30 November 1874	David Hend Ann Greig	David Thomson Ann Greig 💍 1874/11740	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver Servant	24 25	Christchurch Do	3 months 3 months	In the house of John Greig	2003		1 December 1874	Rev C. Fraser
3455	30 November 1874	Alfred Broome Amelia Wells	Alfred Osborne Amelia Wells 💍 1874/12553	Bachelor Spinster	Hawker	40 50	Christchurch Do	8 months 20 years	In the house of Mrs Wells	2287		30 November 1874	Rev. S. Macfarlane
3456	15 December 1874	Charles McIntyre Christina McFarlane	Charles McIntyre Christina McFarlane 💍 1874/11737	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Dressmaker	26 24	Christchurch Do	2 years 2 months	In the house of Mr C. Fraser	2002		15 December 1874	Rev C Fraser
3457	1 December 1874	John Bradley Coulton Alice Maud Grey	John Blayney Colmore Alice Maude Grey 💍 1874/13396	Bachelor Spinster	Law Clerk	26 22	Christchurch Do	9 Years 18 Years	In the house of Joseph Grey	2573		1 December 1874	Rev. St.P. Griffiths
3458	7 December 1874	William Albert Lines Elizabeth Jane Davey	William Albert Jones Elizabeth Jane Amy 💍 1874/11602	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor Tailoress	26 23	Christchurch Do	1 year 1 year	In the Wesleyen Church	1953		7 December 1874	Rev. J. Buller
3459	2 December 1874	John Shelton Gibson Mary Anne Foster	John Shelton Gibson Mary Anne Foden 💍 1874/11551	Bachelor Widow	Contractor Publican	43 46	Timaru Timaru	1 year 1 Week	Registrar's Office	1937		2 December 1874	B. Parkinson Esq. Registrar of Marriages
3460	3 December 1874	Walter Hedgeman Mary Oliver Smith	Walter Hedgman Mary Oliver Smith 💍 1874/11866	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	25 19	Christchurch Heathcote	3 days 12 Years	In the Heathcote Church	2049	George Smith, father	3 December 1874	Rev. S.J. Chatterton Nelson
3461	19 December 1874	Alfred Jones Helen Millar	Alfred Innes Helen Millar 💍 1874/11539	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	35 21	Christchurch Papauni	13 Years 5 Years	In the house of Mrs Millar	1933		19 December 1874	Rev. T.S. Stevens
3462	4 December 1874	John Findlay Jane Wilson	[No matching marriage registration has been located]	Widower Spinster	Iron Moulder Servant	29 21	Christchurch Christchurch	5 Years 5 months	In the house of Rev. A. F. Douglas Christchurch			4 December 1874	Rev. A.F. Douglas
3463	7 December 1874	Edward Eugene Stanislas Mikulowski Mary Martha Day	[No matching marriage registration has been located]	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	28 21	Christchurch Christchurch	4 Weeks 4 Weeks	St. Michaels Church Christchurhc			7 December 1874	Rev. H. J. Edwards

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).