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 555

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
3554	10 February 1875	William Robert Robinson Sarah Jane Binstead	William Robert Robinson Sarah Jane Binstead 💍 1875/238	Bachelor Spinster	Coppersmith	33 21	Christchurch Christchurch	11 Years 8 Years	In the house of Mr. Binstead	75/237		18 February 1875	Rev. H. I. Habens
3555	10 February 1875	George Handsides Mary Ann Coalbeck	George Handyside Mary Ann Coalbeck 💍 1875/136	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter Servant	32 27	Christchurch Christchurch	1 Year 7 months	In the house of Mr. Handsides	75/141		19 February 1875	Rev. G. Bond
3559	20 February 1875	Thomas Pace Charlotte Lydia Spoush		Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Cook	39 36	Rakain Gorge Rakain Gorge	9 months 9 months	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/1346		20 February 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3560	20 February 1875	Thomas Barton Peto Emily Sophia Felton	Thomas Barton Peto Emily Sophia Felton 💍 1875/2997	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Servant	24 19	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Years 10 Years	In the house of Mr. Felton	75/1347	Joseph Felton, Father	6 March 1875	Rev. B. I. Westbrook
3561	20 February 1875	Henry Kings Chalmers Martha Sweet	George Chalmers Martha Smash 💍 1875/1305	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 21	Christchurch Christchurch	1 Week 4 days	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/1345		20 February 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3562	20 February 1875	Henry Loram Lawson Frances Elizabeth Sole		Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	23 21	Riccarton Courtenay	6 Years 3 Years	In Courtenay Church	75/720		6 March 1875	Rev. S. H. Gould
3563	22 February 1875	Presonby May Carew Ellen Sudley	Ponsonby May Carew Ellen Dudley 💍 1875/487	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	40 29	Addington New Brighton	2 Years 20 Years	In Avonside Church	75/572		22 February 1875	Rev. H. S. Glasson
3564	22 February 1875	John Chaplin Mary Ann Savron	John Carter Mary Ann Pascoe 💍 1875/933 John Gaddis Mary Ann Hamilton 💍 1875/1223 John Beaton Mary Ann Cane 💍 1875/2771 John Sheppard Mary Ann Gunn 💍 1875/1427	Widower Spinster	Publican Cook	50 45	Hillsborough Opawa	10 Years 7 Years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/1349		22 February 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3565	22 February 1875	John McDonald Emma Ruth Staples	John McDonald Emma Ruth Staples 💍 1875/728	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 8 Years	In the house Lyttelton Mr. Staples	75/615		22 February 1875	Rev. A. F. Douglas
3566	23 February 1875	William Given Sarah Jane Wills	William Dunn Sarah Jane Wills 💍 1875/1308	Bachelor Spinster	Slaughterman Servant	26 21	Addington Addington	14 months 1 week	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/1348		23 February 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3567	24 February 1875	James Souter Mary Ann Calpin	James Louter Mary McAlpine 💍 1875/730 James Capper Mary Ann Green 💍 1875/741 James Fraser Mary Ann Brialey 💍 1875/2893 James Smith Mary Ann Dyer 💍 1875/2572 James Stone Mary Ann Stone 💍 1875/2222 James Jones Mary Anne Hodder 💍 1875/3008 James Smith Mary Ann Broughton 💍 1875/2946 James White Mary Allan 💍 1876/219	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	29 21	Christchurch Christchurch	10 Years 14 Years	In the house of Rev. A. F. Douglas	75/617		10 March 1875	Rev. A. F. Douglas

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).