Intentions to Marry, 1875

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840387, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 16 2025.

This register is quite fragile and some of the pages are damaged or even missing.

Page 586

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1875

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
3883	24 November 1875	Frederick Carringtin Harriett Elizabeth Trainor		Widower Spinster	Sawmiller	36 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the Church of St. Luke	75/3008		24 November 1875	Rev. J. A. Lingard
3884	25 November 1875	Stephen Gilbert Ada Bolton	Stephen Gilbert Ada Bolton 💍 1875/2281	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	28 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 6 months	In the Congregational Church	75/2463		25 November 1875	Rev. H. L. Skeet
3885	25 November 1875	John Wickliffe Mary Jane McGregor	John Wichliffe Mary Jane McGregor 💍 1875/2297	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 30	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 4 days	In the Church of St. Michael	75/2455		25 November 1875	Rev. J. J. Edwards
3886	25 November 1875	George Henry Hector Grace Kesteven	George Henry Saxton Norah Grace Kesteven 💍 1875/2296	Widower Spinster	Shipfarmer	39 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 months	In the Church, Akaroa	75/2457		25 November 1875	Rev. J. J. Edwards
3887	25 November 1875	William Nixon Chapman Eliza Pascoe	William Nixon Chapman Eliza Pascoe 💍 1875/2137	Widower Spinster	Mariner	35 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 2 years	In the Registrar's Office, Lyttelton	75/2268		25 November 1875	J. W. Parkerson, Registrar of Marriages, Christchurch
3888	27 November 1875	John Wendelken Mary Ann Wilkins	John Wendelken Mary Ann Hitchins 💍 1875/2138	Bachelor Widow	Mariner	27 24	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 4 months	In the Registrar's Office, Christchurch	75/2269		27 November 1875	J. W. Parkerson, Registrar of Marriages, Christchurch
3889	29 November 1875	Alfred Dawson Rebecca Tresise	Alfred Dawson Rebecca Trezise 💍 1875/2381	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	28 21	Christchurch Christchurch	4 months 3 months	In the house of Mrs. Berry	75/2340		29 November 1875	Rev. J. Berry
3890	29 November 1875	John Frank Theran Hoffmann Elizabeth Delacour	John Frank Theodore Hoffman Elizabeth Delabour 💍 1875/3034	Bachelor Spinster	Shipwright	28 19	Christchurch Christchurch	18 months 18 months	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/3155	Elizabeth Delacour, Mother	29 November 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3891	30 November 1875	James Derinott Sarah Lissume Dickson	James Dermott Sarah Dinsmore Dickson 💍 1875/3042	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 10 months	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/3163		30 November 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3892	3 December 1875	James Henry Martin Mary Ann Stratton		Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Housemaid	28 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 months 4 years	In the Roman Catholic Presbytery	75/2653		3 December 1875	Rev. J. P. Chareyre
3893	3 December 1875	George Andrews Frances Alice Boag	George Andrews Frances Alice Boaz 💍 1875/2730	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Cook	22 19	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 years	In St. Luke's Church	75/3009	There is no person having authority to consent	3 December 1875	Rev. J. A. Lingard

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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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).