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 552

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
3524	23 January 1875	Herbert Parker Anne Margaret Whithair	Herbert Parker Anne Margaret Whitham 💍 1875/202	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 19	Pubbletin Christchurch	3 years 7 years	St Lukes Church	75/1225	Mary and Elizabeth Anne Whithair mother	23 January 1875	Rev. R. G. Lingard
3525	25 January 1875	Thomas White Sarah James Amy Taylor	Thomas White Sarah Ann Taylor 💍 1875/223	Widower Widow	Engineer	46 41	Christchurch Christchurch	1 month 1 month	St Michaels Church	75/1230		25 January 1875	Rev. J. J. Glasson
3526	25 January 1875	Edward William Roper Frances Trew	Edward William Roper Frances Trew 💍 1875/131	Widower Widow	Auctioneer	49 43	Christchurch Sumner	6 years 6 years	Mr. Millers	75/136		25 January 1875	Rev. G. Bond
3527	25 January 1875	Thomas Charles Brazier Annie Finlay	John Charles Crozier Durham Annie Finlay 💍 1875/467	Bachelor Spinster	Medical Practitioner	30 23	Pubbletin Christchurch	3 months 6 months	Mr. Clark	75/509		25 January 1875	Rev. J. J. Glasson
3528	26 January 1875	James Inwood Anna Macdonell	James Inwood Anna McDonnell 💍 1875/534	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 2 months	Merivale	75/656		26 January 1875	Rev. F. Knowles
3529	26 January 1875	Phillip Malone Mary Appleby		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 20	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 3 months	Roman Catholic Church	75/1174		26 January 1875	Rev. J. J. Belliard
3530	26 January 1875	Timothy James Byrne Mary Ann Webster	Timothy James Byrne Mary Ann Webster 💍 1875/122	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	26 24	Shirley Shirley	1 year 5 weeks	Roman Catholic Church	75/1178		26 January 1875	Rev. J. J. Belliard
3531	26 January 1875	Samuel Sinclair Caroline Harriet Alpas	Samuel Sinclair Caroline Harinet Alport 💍 1875/1169	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	27 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 19 years	St Johns Church	75/1092	Herbert Edward Alpas father	26 January 1875	Rev. J. J. Glasson
3532	27 January 1875	Matthew Hill Mary Maclean Paterson	Matthew Hill Mary McLean Patterson 💍 1875/1316	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	34 21	Christchurch Christchurch	6 days 1 week	In the house	75/1333		27 January 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3533	28 January 1875	Robert Henry Robinson Florence Gregory	Robert Henry Robinson Florence Gregory 💍 1875/1317	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman Servant	29 19	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 2 years	In the house	75/1334	There is person having authority	28 January 1875	Rev. C. Fraser

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).