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 600

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
3464	7 December 1874	John Bassett Elizabeth Parsons	John Bassett Elizabeth Parsons 💍 1874/11731	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 23	Addington do	1 year 5 months	In the house of Rufus Fraser	2000		21 December 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3465	7 December 1874	Neil Black Margaret Maria Lelen	Neil Black Margaret Maria Lelen 💍 1874/13402	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	38 32	Christchurch do	18 months 7 years	In St. Johns Church	2575		8 December 1874	Rev. W.H. Watkins
3466	9 December 1874	George Samuel Hilch Emma Margaret Younghusband	George Samuel Ffitch Emma Margaret Younghusband 💍 1874/12796	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	34 25	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 4 months	In the Avonside Church	74/2369		23 December 1874	Rev. H. Glasson
3467	9 December 1874	William Reid Elizabeth Fenton	William Reid Elizabeth Geeghan 💍 1874/8818	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 25	Papanui do	4 months 9 years	Church	1998	Henry Fenton, father	10 December 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3468	14 December 1874	James Maher Margaret Russell	James Maher Margaret Russell 💍 1874/11722	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 21	St. Albans Ferry Road	16 years 1 year	In the house of [UNCLEAR] Clancy	1997		14 December 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3469	14 December 1874	James Henry Sherwood Naomi Manhire	James Henry Henwood Naomi Manhire 💍 1874/12793	Bachelor Spinster	Stockeeper Dressmaker	25 26	Christchurch do	3 days 3 years	In the house of John Manhire, Kaiapoi	2368		14 December 1874	Rev. J.S.Westbrook
3470	14 December 1874	Arthur John Fry Caroline Maud Kingsnorth	Arthur John Pyne Caroline Maude Kingshott 💍 1874/13855	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 20	Spreydon Christchurch	1 year 1 year	In St. Lukes Church	2734	[UNCLEAR] having authority	14 December 1874	Rev. J.A.LIngard
3471	14 December 1874	John Scott Mary Ann Gilchrist	John Sloan Isobella Gilchrist 💍 1875/256	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber Servant	22 21	Christchurch do	6 months 4 months	In the house of Rufus Fraser	1999	[UNCLEAR] authorized	14 December 1874	Rev. C. Fraser
3472	15 December 1874	Joseph Hadfield Elizabeth Ellen Shepherd	Joseph Hadfield Elizabeth Ellen Sheppard 💍 1874/11605	Widower Spinster	Contractor	40 25	Christchurch do	4 years 12 years	In the Wesleyan Church	1956		15 December 1874	Rev. J. Buller
3473	17 December 1874	Samuel Garforth Edith Amelia Harman	Samuel Garforth Edith Amelia Hannan 💍 1874/11554	Bachelor Spinster	Stock dealer	35 22	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 4 years	In the Registrar's Office Christchurch	74/1938		17 December 1874	Registrar of Marriages B Parkinson
3474	17 December 1874	Henry Weir Mary Jane Barren	Henry Weir Mary Jane Barrett 💍 1874/11563	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	36 22	Front [UNCLEAR]ay Road Christchurch	10 years 2 years	In St. Michaels Church	1942		31 December 1874	Rev. H.S. 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 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).