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 602

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
3486	24 December 1874	Andrew Berry Eliza Berry	Andrew Guy Eliza Barry 💍 1874/11743	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	36 23	Christhchurch Do	9 months 1 year	At the house of Mr Kirk	2004	24 December 1874	Rev C Fraser
3487	24 December 1874	William Hunter Susannah Izett	William Hunter Susannah Vickery 💍 1874/11599	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	35 23	Christhchurch Do	5 years 10 months	In the house of Mr Machin	1954	24 December 1874	Rev J Buller
3488	24 December 1874	George Hamilton Matilda Little	George Hamilton Matilda Gibson 💍 1874/11746	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman Servant	24 22	Christchurch Do	7 months 4 months	In the house of Mr Kirk	2005	24 December 1874	Rev C Fraser
3489	28 December 1874	William Large Emily Faulkner	William George Gates Emily Faulkner 💍 1874/11542	Bachelor Spinster	Sign Writer Servant	21 22	Christhchurch Do	4 months 2 years	In the house of Mrs Cox	1934	28 December 1874	Rev H T Habens
3490	28 December 1874	Richard Alfred Cotter Clara Louisa Bawes	Richard Alfred Cooper Clara Louisa Baines 💍 1875/597	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer Servant	28 20	Do Rangiora	1 month 1 month	In the house of Mr Cooper		28 December 1874	D M Cooper
3491	28 December 1874	William Prebble Rufina McDonald	William Prebble Robina McDonald 💍 1875/1261 William Perston Catherine McDonald 💍 1874/12424	Widower Widow	Farmer	46 36	Templeton Do	25 years 3 years	In the house of Rev C Fraser	7323	28 December 1874	Rev C Fraser
3492	28 December 1874	George Wells Elizabeth Gorstage	George Wills Elizabeth Gorstage 💍 1875/1294	Widower Widow	Carpenter Nurse	43 42	Christchurch Christchurch	20 months 3 years	In the house of Rev C Fraser Tuam Street	75/1335	28 December 1874	Rev C Fraser
3493	29 December 1874	William Collins Mary Louisa Dolman	William Collins Mary Louisa Dolamore 💍 1875/610	Bachelor Spinster	Jeweller	29 22	Chris/church Do	1 year 3 days	Residence of Wm Collins	412	29 December 1874	Rev C Bowen
3494	29 December 1874	William Little Caroline Mills	William Tisch Caroline Mills 💍 1875/457	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 22	North Road Christhchurch	4 years 22 years	At the Primitive Methodist Chapel		29 December 1874	Rev T J Westbrook
3495	29 December 1874	Joseph Dawson Ann Rees	Joseph Dawson Anne Reese 💍 1875/713	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	31 26	Chris/Church Do	6 years 10 years	Residence of Revd F Styles	1965	29 December 1874	Revd F Styles
3496	30 December 1874	Robert Hepburn Eliza Cartwright	Robert Hepburn Eliza Cartwright 💍 1874/11596	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 24	Addingtom Carlton	5 years 5 years	Wesleyan Church	1953	30 December 1874	Rev J Buller

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).