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 580

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 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
3818	23 September 1875	John Thomas Kerr Sarah Kerr		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	25 19	Lincoln Lincoln	6 years 1 year	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/3090	Sarah Kerr, mother	23 September 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3819	23 September 1875	William Bowie Lucy Mary Regan	William Bowie Lucy Mary Regun 💍 1875/2855	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 19	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 2 months	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/3091	There is no person having authority to give consent	23 September 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3820	25 September 1875	Thomas Askew Maria Eals Thanton	Thomas Askew Maria Eals Thornton 💍 1875/1860	Widower Widow	Farmer	47 38	Papanui Papanui	8 years 1 year	In the house of W. Askew	75/1888		25 September 1875	Rev. I. Sharpe
3821	25 September 1875	William Hibbart Alice Whitlock Smith	William Hibbard Alice Whitick Smith 💍 1875/3038	Widower Spinster	Labourer Servant	28 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/3181		25 September 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3822	27 September 1875	Michael Reilly Ellen Ryan	Michael Reilly Ellen Ryan 💍 1875/1744	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	35 28	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 7 days	In the Roman Catholic Church, Christchurch	75/188		27 September 1875	Rev. I. P. Chareyne
3823	27 September 1875	George Chidpey Annie Demmings	George Chidgey Annie Jennings 💍 1875/2382	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Dressmaker	34 23	Waltham Waltham	2 years 2 years	In the house of Mr. Withell	75/2341		27 September 1875	Mr. R. Morton
3824	27 September 1875	Alfred John Ludlam Annie Hart	Alfred John Lindman Hannah Hart 💍 1875/1745 John Page Annie Hart 💍 1875/1897	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 28	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 3 years	In the Roman Catholic Church, Christchurch	75/1889		27 September 1875	Rev. I. P. Chareyne
3825	27 September 1875	George Wilson Sarah Ann Euries	George Wilson Sarah Ann Ewins Ward 💍 1875/1967	Bachelor Widow	Gardener	37 31	Heathcote Christchurch	4 years 2 months	In St. Michael's Church	75/2048		27 September 1875	Rev. T. J. Edwards
3826	30 September 1875	James Fraser Emma Williams	James Fraser Emma Williams 💍 1875/2862 Morris Edward Jackson Emma Williams 💍 1875/228	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	26 27	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 9 months	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/3092		30 September 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3827	30 September 1875	Frank Hubback Emma Lancaster	Frank Hubbard Emma Lancaster 💍 1875/2279	Widower Spinster	Butcher	27 37	Ferry Road Christchurch	7 months 3 months	In the Congregational Church	75/2461		30 September 1875	Rev. W. J. Habens

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).