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 551

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
3513	14 January 1875	Hugh Hodge Ellen Dick	Hugh Hodge Helen Dick 💍 1875/1314	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	24 28	Christchurch Fendal Town	4 years 2 years	The house of Mr. Graham	75/1331	No person having authority to give consent	14 January 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3514	15 January 1875	Thomas Prior Beale Sarah Maria Bulder	Thomas Prior Beale Sarah Maria Butcher 💍 1875/224	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	25 20	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 16 years	Michael Church	75/1231	William Attwood, Father	27 January 1875	Rev. H. I. Edwards
3515	16 January 1875	George Stephen Witham Lewis Sarah Allwood		Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	26 20	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 16 years	Michael Church	75/1229	William Attwood, Father	16 January 1875	Rev. H. I. Edwards
3516	18 January 1875	Edward McKenzie Margaret Robertson Laird	Edward McKenzie Margaret Robertson Laird 💍 1875/726	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	31 24	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 2 years	The house of Miss Laird	75/613		18 January 1875	Rev. A. Z. Douglas
3517	18 January 1875	Ferdinand Vincent Laura Alice Trezise	Ferdinand Jervis Vincent Laura Alice Tugeagle 💍 1875/468	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	23 17	Christchurch Christchurch	6 weeks 6 weeks	Church	75/570	James Trezise, Father	18 January 1875	Rev. H. I. Glasson
3518	18 January 1875	George Smith Charlotte Clarke	George Tirett Charlotte Clarke 💍 1875/611	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	35 33	Riccarton Riccarton	3 years 12 years	Church	75/413		18 January 1875	Rev. C. Bowen
3519	19 January 1875	James Thomas Mackled Marie Elizabeth Money	James Thomas MacLeod Smith Marie Elizabeth Morey 💍 1875/293	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist	24 22	St. Albans St. Albans	4 days 1 year	The house of Mr. J. Smith	75/304		19 January 1875	Rev. J. Aldred
3520	20 January 1875	Peter Taylor Annie Foley	Peter Taylor Annie Panely 💍 1875/1296	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Painter Servant	26 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 4 days	The house of Mr. Melville	75/133		2 February 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3521	20 January 1875	Reginald Blunden Alice Murphy	Reginald Blunden Alice Murphy 💍 1875/169	Bachelor Widow		25 30	Christchurch Christchurch	8 days 3 months	John Church	75/1224		20 January 1875	Rev. E. A. Lingard
3522	20 January 1875	James Doherty Margaret Doocey	James Doherty Margaret Doocey 💍 1875/60	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Dressmaker	30 27	Papanui Papanui	7 months 7 months	Catholic Chapel	75/62		20 January 1875	Rev. J. C. Cherrier
3523	22 January 1875	William Beasley Elvira Roper	William Dearsley Elvira Maitland Roper 💍 1875/132	Widower Spinster		53 38	Christchurch St. Albans	20 years 8 years	The house of Mr. Mitchell	75/134		22 January 1875	Rev. G. Bond

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).