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 559

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
3601	17 March 1875	Robert Richards Peace Alma Eccles	Robert Richards Pearce Alma Eccles 💍 1875/208	Bachelor Spinster	Wellsinker Milliner	27 19	Christchurch Christchurch	6 months 6 months	Michaels Church	75/1239	Samuel Eccles, Father	17 March 1875	Rev. H. I. Edwards
3602	18 March 1875	James Ridden Sarah Everest	James Ridden Sarah Everest 💍 1875/890	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	28 21	Springston Springston	2 Years 6 Years	Springston Church	75/1006		18 March 1875	Rev. R. Stocker
3603	19 March 1875	William Youngman Janet Shierlaw	William Youngman Janet Shierlaw 💍 1875/3146	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	23 18	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 4 years	In the house of Oxford William Steward Shierlaw	75/646	Steward Shierlaw, Father	19 March 1875	Rev. S. Macfarlane
3604	19 March 1875	Richard Jones Rebecca Beunion	Richard Jones Rebecca Bennison 💍 1875/2996	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	31 22	Christchurch Christchurch	12 years 6 months	In the house of Mr. Jones	75/310		19 March 1875	Rev. R. Watson
3605	20 March 1875	Daniel Low Margaret Dobson	Daniel Gow Margaret Dobson 💍 1875/732	Bachelor Spinster	Shopkeeper Servant	33 21	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 5 months	In the house of Rev. A. F. Douglas	75/621		20 March 1875	Rev. A. F. Douglas
3606	20 March 1875	William Page Sarah Shelbourne	William Page Sarah Shelbourne 💍 1875/210	Bachelor Widow	Mariner	43 44	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 1 year	Michaels Church	75/241		20 March 1875	Rev. H. I. Edwards
3607	22 March 1875	William Bramwell Mary Ann Salter	William Bramwell Scott Mary Ann Salter 💍 1875/466	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor Servant	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 16 years	In the house of Mr. Salter	75/508		22 March 1875	Rev. A. R. Fitchett
3608	23 March 1875	John Stevenson Margaret Beaton	John Stevenson Margaret Beaton 💍 1875/28	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	25 24	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 4 days	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/1357		23 March 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3609	23 March 1875	James Ritchie Margaret Hodys	James Michie Margaret Dixon 💍 1875/1182 James McNish Margaret Hodge 💍 1875/3161 James Mitchell Margaret Abbott 💍 1875/2032 James Kehoe Margaret Cudiby 💍 1875/2016	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	30 28	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 3 years	In the house of Mr. Ritchie	75/620		23 March 1875	Rev. A. F. Douglas
3610	25 March 1875	Henry Wilkinson Ann Martha Gruffith	Henry Wilkinson Annie Martha Griffiths 💍 1875/465	Widower Spinster	Bootmaker Housekeeper	36 40	Christchurch Papanui Road	10 years 15 years	In the house of Mr. Sumner	75/804		25 March 1875	Rev. A. R. Fitchett
3611	25 March 1875	Arthur Staples Sarah Kirkwood	Arthur Staples Sarah Kirkwood 💍 1875/1341	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Servant	21 18	Addington Addington	1 year 1 year	In the house of Mayery Donald Currie	75/1358	Donald Currie, Mother	25 March 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).