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 574

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
3752	19 July 1875	George Ladbrook Maria Sycamore	George Ladbrook Hannah Maria Syeamore 💍 1875/1545	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 18	Pebbleton Springbank Road	3 years 14 years	Registrars Office Christchurch	75/1619	William Sycamore, Father	19 July 1875	Registrar of Marriages, I W Parkerson
3753	19 July 1875	James Cochran Grace Every Miller	James Cochran Grace Every Miller 💍 1875/1546	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	26 22	Christchurch Christchurch	1 month 2 weeks	Registrars Office Christchurch	75/1620		19 July 1875	Registrar of Marriages, I W Parkerson
3754	20 July 1875	William Richard Hampton Frances Bailey		Bachelor Spinster	Servant Servant	32 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 weeks 1 month, Tuam Street	In the house of Rev C Fraser	75/3034		20 July 1875	Rev C Fraser
3755	20 July 1875	Joseph Shelford Eliza Jane Savage	Joseph Shatford Eliza Jane Savage 💍 1875/1550	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright Servant	29 26	Christchurch Christchurch	4 months 2 years	In the house of Rich F Stoyles	75/1624		20 July 1875	Rich F Stoyles
3756	20 July 1875	Alfred Foster Maryann McLory	Alfred Foster Mary Ann McCory 💍 1875/2083	Bachelor Spinster	Bookbinder	25 23	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 1 year	In the Church of St Luke	75/2084		20 July 1875	Rev G A Lingard
3757	20 July 1875	Frederick Pepler Jane Agnes Clarke	Frederick Peiper Jane Agnes Clarke 💍 1875/1963	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 3 years	In the Church of St Michael	75/2044		20 July 1875	Rev J Edwards
3758	21 July 1875	Major Cunningham Annie Sutcliffe	Major Cunningham Annie Sutcliffe 💍 1875/2392	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	28 19	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 19 years	In St John's Church	75/2350	Caroline Sutcliffe, Mother	21 July 1875	Rev J C M Watson
3759	26 July 1875	Henry Charles Rose Sarah Borrell	Henry Charles Rose Sarah Ann Borreth 💍 1875/1964	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	22 19	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 4 years	In St Michael's Church	75/2045	William Borrell, Father	26 July 1875	Rev St J Edwards
3760	26 July 1875	Peter Grant Agnes McLean Livingston	Peter Grant Isabella Agnes McLeen Livingstone 💍 1875/3202	Bachelor Spinster	Cattle dealer	33 21	Christchurch Judah Town Road	9 years 1 month	In the house of Rev E Fraser	75/3038		26 July 1875	Rev E Fraser
3761	27 July 1875	Thomas Seth Martha McGregor	Thomas Scott Martha McGregor 💍 1875/1547	Bachelor Spinster	Stoker Servant	30 22	Christchurch Christchurch	10 months 1 week	In the Registrars Office	75/1621		27 July 1875	Registrar of Marriages, I W Parkerson
3762	28 July 1875	Cephas Scrivener Elizabeth Marinella	Cephes Scrivener Elizabeth Marion Hole 💍 1875/2391	Widower Spinster	Draper Milliner	37 28	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 18 months	In St John's Church	75/2349		28 July 1875	Rev J C M Watson

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).