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 550

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
3502	5 January 1875	Thomas Start Mary Jane McMillan	Thomas Hart Mary Jane McMullen 💍 1875/94 Thomas Allen Mary Jane Farland 💍 1875/272	Bachelor Spinster	Cook Servant	28 26	Christchurch Do	5 days 5 days	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	75/1321		5 January 1875	Rev. H. Belliard
3503	6 January 1875	John Fraser Elizabeth McVeigh	John Fraser Elizabeth McVeigh 💍 1875/114	Bachelor Spinster	Warder Matron	31 27	Lincoln Road Do	18 months 3 years	In the Roman Catholic Presbytery	75/176		6 January 1875	Rev. H. Belliard
3504	6 January 1875	Walter Wray Mary Ann Trumbath	Walter Wray Mary Ann Trembath 💍 1875/1304	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 22	Papanui Do	6 months 9 months	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/1327		6 January 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3505	6 January 1875	Justice Ierewish Catherine Laurence	James Jeremiah Harding Catherine Laurence 💍 1875/226	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Servant	21 21	Addington Christchurch	3 years 2 years	In St. Michael's Church	75/1233		20 January 1875	Rev. W. J. Edwards
3506	8 January 1875	Robert Pepperite Clara Jane Dewey	Robert Pepperell Clara Jane Dewey 💍 1875/1168	Bachelor Spinster	Bootcloser Servant	26 21	Woodside Christchurch	12 years 1 year	In St. Luke's Church	75/109		22 January 1875	Rev. H. C. M. Watson
3507	9 January 1875	Alexander Fullarton Jane Robertson	Alexander Finlayson Jane Robertson 💍 1875/1311 James Henderson Janet Robertson 💍 1876/547	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Servant	31 21	Christchurch Do	14 days 14 days	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/1328		9 January 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3508	11 January 1875	John Launt Margaret Nicol	John Lamb Margaret Nicol 💍 1875/724	Bachelor Spinster	Mason Servant	23 19	Christchurch Do	3 months 3 months	In the house of Mr. Nicol	75/612	Andrew Nicol, Father	11 January 1875	Rev. A. F. Douglas
3509	11 January 1875	George Philpott Ellen Preston	George Philpott Ellen Preston 💍 1875/167	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	25 22	Christchurch North Road	6 months 2 years	In the Church	75/222		25 January 1875	Rev. F. L. Brittan
3510	11 January 1875	Walter Henry Dixon Charlotte Campfield	Walter Henry Dixon Charlotte Campfeild 💍 1875/1315	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 25	Christchurch Do	1 year 3 months	In the house of Mr. Dixon	75/1332		25 January 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3511	11 January 1875	Alexander Murray Agnes Smith	Alexander Murray Agnes Smith 💍 1875/1313	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Servant	32 21	Christchurch Do	9 months 1 year	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/1330		11 January 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3512	13 January 1875	William Munro Jane Watt	William Munro Jessie Watt 💍 1875/1312	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	24 22	Christchurch Do	3 days 3 days	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/1329		13 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).