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 557

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
3579	4 March 1875	Thomas Malles Jessie Manson	Thomas Walles Jessie Manson 💍 1875/1329	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	46 28	Addington Addington	10 months 1 year	In the house of Mrs Rogers	75/1352		4 March 1875	Rev C Fraser
3580	4 March 1875	Jerome Murphy Caroline Rowe	Jerome Murphy Caroline Rowe 💍 1875/206	Bachelor Spinster		33 22	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 1 week	In St Michaels Church	75/1237		4 March 1875	Rev. St. I. Edwards
3581	4 March 1875	John Ingram Collier Rachel Jane Smith	John Ingrin Collie Rachel June Smith 💍 1875/1318	Bachelor Spinster	Miller Servant	21 22	River Styx River Styx	11 months 13 months	In the house of Rev C Fraser	75/1357		4 March 1875	Rev C Fraser
3582	5 March 1875	George Taylor Ann Maunder	George Taylor Ann Manders 💍 1875/245	Widower Spinster	Carter Servant	60 39	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 11 years	In the house of Mr. Northam	75/1252		5 March 1875	Rev Mr. I. Habens
3583	6 March 1875	Joseph Such Agnes Earwshaw	Joseph Snell Agnes Earnshaw 💍 1875/599	Widower Spinster	Carpenter	38 22	Christchurch Addington	23 years 5 years	Wesleyan Church	75/1224		6 March 1875	Rev I Buller
3584	8 March 1875	Hermann Rummel Jeanie Muir Milne		Bachelor Spinster	Cook	33 28	River Styx Annanlea	2 years 6 months	In the house of Rev C Fraser	75/1359		8 March 1875	Rev C Fraser
3585	8 March 1875	Peter Burneys Ellen Sugden	Peter Burney Ellen McGrath 💍 1875/1336	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	28 24	Christchurch Christchurch	6 months 3 months	In the house of Mr. Ombler	75/1353		8 March 1875	Rev C Fraser
3586	9 March 1875	Francis Augustus Fischer Mary Ann Campion	Francis Augustus Fletcher Mary Anne Campion 💍 1875/259	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	35 18	Papanui Papanui	15 months 11 years	Public Hall, Papanui	75/1291	Campion, Father	9 March 1875	Rev Mr. I. Paige
3587	9 March 1875	Richard Treleaven Alice Faith Bird	Richard Treleaven Alice Faith Bird 💍 1875/1337	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Dressmaker	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	21 years 5 years	Scotch Church	75/1354		9 March 1875	Rev C Fraser
3588	10 March 1875	Robert Hauna Alice Rickards	Robert Hanna Alice Rickurd 💍 1875/734 Robert Young Alice Hill 💍 1876/397	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	29 24	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 4 days	In the house of Mr. Watt	75/1394		10 March 1875	Rev A F Douglas
3589	10 March 1875	Hurrich Meyerhoff Elizabeth Carter	Hinrich Meyerhoff Elizabeth Carter 💍 1875/207	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	36 32	Lincoln Road Christchurch	12 years 8 months	Michael Church	75/1238		10 March 1875	Rev St. I. Edwards

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).