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 553

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
3535	29 January 1875	Charles Evin Curtis Eliza Westgate	Charles Evin Curtis Eliza Westgate 💍 1875/133	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Clerk	28 21	Christchurch Christchurch	5 months 3 months	Wesleyan Church	75/138		29 January 1875	Rev. I. Bullen
3536	1 February 1875	William Buckeridge Mary Walker	William Buckeridge Mary Walker 💍 1875/612	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Labourer	24 18	Halswell Riccarton	5 years 3 years	Riccarton	75/114	John Walker, Father	1 February 1875	Rev. C. Bowen
3537	1 February 1875	Herbert Cook Mette Katrina Petersen	Herbert Cook Mette Katrina Paterson 💍 1875/1303	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 29	Christchurch Christchurch	11 years 2 years	In the house	75/134		1 February 1875	Rev. C Fraser
3538	1 February 1875	Philip Bennett Mary Chirnitska	Philip Deibert Mary Chernitska 💍 1875/1295	Widower Spinster	Farmer Servant	40 30	North Road Papanni	10 years 1 month	In the house	75/1336		1 February 1875	Rev. C Fraser
3539	2 February 1875	Alexander Forbes Agnes Wilson	Alexander Forbes Agnes Wilson 💍 1875/1297 Alexander Dunbar Helen Wilson 💍 1876/3145	Bachelor Spinster	Wagoner Servant	30 22	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 1 year	In the house	75/1338		2 February 1875	Rev. C Fraser
3540	8 February 1875	Richard Sullivan Mary Shanahan	Richard Sullivan Mary Shanahan 💍 1875/123 John Matthew Molluza Mary Shanahan 💍 1875/1739	Widower Spinster	Cook Servant	29 23	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 5 years	Roman Catholic Church	75/119		8 February 1875	Rev. St. Belliard
3541	6 February 1875	William Taylor Martha Twiggs	William Taylor Martha Twigg 💍 1875/225 William Taylor Margaret Fraser 💍 1875/1659	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	33 33	Porters Pass Porters Pass	1 year 4 months	St. Michael's Church	75/232		6 February 1875	Rev. St. J. Edwards
3542	6 February 1875	George Robinson Sarah Edwards	George Robinson Sarah Edwards 💍 1875/532	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant Accountant	39 26	Christchurch Merivale	10 months 10 months	In the house	75/655		6 February 1875	Rev. F. Knowles
3543	6 February 1875	John Francis Ryan Maria Aldred Bottom	John Francis Wyatt Maria Aldred Vontom 💍 1875/203	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Dressmaker	20 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 months 1 year	St. Michael's Church	75/234	Elizabeth Bottom, Mother	6 February 1875	Rev. St. J. Edwards
3544	8 February 1875	Robert Jones Ann McCracken	Robert Jones Ann McCracken 💍 1875/1301	Bachelor Spinster	Cook Cook	39 37	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the house	75/1342		8 February 1875	Rev. C Fraser
3545	8 February 1875	Thomas Sound Margaret Haur	Thomas Donald Margaret Fraser 💍 1875/135 Thomas Dean Margaret Reid 💍 1876/572 Thomas Drennan Margaret Bain 💍 1875/157 Thomas Graham Margaret Ward 💍 1875/1355 Thomas Keily Margaret McGuire 💍 1875/1662 Thomas Webb Margaret Dunne 💍 1875/2495 Thomas Aldridge Margaret Carroll 💍 1876/347 Thomas Wallon Margaret Omeara 💍 1875/430	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker Servant	30 23	Christchurch Waltham	1 year 4 months	In the house	75/140		8 February 1875	Rev. S. 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).