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 558

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 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
3590	10 March 1875	George Edward Lauhan Eveline Margaret Shine	George Edward Larkam Eveline Margaret Thine 💍 1875/600	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 22	Christchurch do	2 years 15 months Durham Street	Wesleyan Church	75/1238		10 March 1875	Rev. I. Buller
3591	11 March 1875	Robert Tilkester Mary Kilchen	Robert Webster Mary Kitchen 💍 1875/731	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	26 22	Christchurch do	3 years in the house of R. & F. Fouglas 6 months	do	75/618		11 March 1875	Rev. R. F. Fouglas
3592	15 March 1875	Frederick William Sandford Maria Masterman Clarke	Frederick William Sandford Maria Masterton Clarke 💍 1875/493	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	22 22	do Opawa	15 months Christchurch 12 months do	Avonside Church	75/513		15 March 1875	Rev. S. T. Glasson
3593	15 March 1875	Thomas Hallis Elizabeth Anna Lilley	Thomas Wallis Elizabeth Anna Lilly 💍 1875/603 Thomas Hilditch Elizabeth Hurley 💍 1875/2761 Thomas Jones Elizabeth Halliday 💍 1875/176 Thomas Hughes Elizabeth Quinn 💍 1875/2827	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 19	Courtenay do	10 years do 12 years Christchurch	St. Lukes Church	75/724	Joseph Mark Lilley, Father	15 March 1875	Rev. R. H. Gould
3594	15 March 1875	Harrington Jane Millar	Robert Harrington Jane Miller 💍 1875/3160	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Cook	36 27	Christchurch do	1 month in the house of W. Allison 8 months Durham Street	do	75/619		15 March 1875	Rev. R. F. Fouglas
3595	15 March 1875	Walker Heasell Johanna Fossitt	Walker Hessell Johanna Dossett 💍 1875/1338	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	23 21	Christchurch do	3 days in the house of R. C. Fraser 3 days Leam Street	do	75/1358		15 March 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3596	15 March 1875	Peter Craven Mary Strinson	Peter Craven Mary Stimson 💍 1875/1171	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Machinist	24 22	Christchurch do	4 months do 4 months Christchurch	St. John's Church	75/1094		15 March 1875	Rev. T. L. Watson
3597	16 March 1875	Francis Tracters Merour Annie Stevens Farr	Francis McBrun Stewart Annie Stevens Farr 💍 1875/1339	Bachelor Spinster	Doctor of Medicine	35 23	Christchurch do	3 days in the Scotch Milling Church 20 years Leam Street	do	75/1356		16 March 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3598	17 March 1875	George Arthur Smith Mary Eliza Walker	George Arthur Smith Mary Eliza Walker 💍 1875/524	Bachelor Spinster	Bookkeeper	33 21	Christchurch do	2 years in the house of Mr. Walker 17 years Windmill Road	do	75/645		17 March 1875	Rev. S. Macfarlane
3599	17 March 1875	John Jeffer Pendray Margaret Baxter	John Jeffree Pendray Margaret Baxter 💍 1875/525	Bachelor Spinster	Minister	30 24	Christchurch do	3 days in the house of Oxford 7 years Durham Street	do	75/649		17 March 1875	Rev. S. Macfarlane
3600	17 March 1875	Thomas Claridge Ellen Rogers	Thomas Claridge Ellen Rogers 💍 1875/168	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	22 23	Papanui do	15 years in the Sunwood Road 2 years Church	do	75/223		17 March 1875	Rev. F. L. Brittan

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).