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 561

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 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
3619	2 April 1875	William Humphrey Elizabeth Jones	William Hagan Elizabeth Jones 💍 1875/2537 William Henry Whitehead Elizabeth Jones 💍 1875/676	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	38 28	Avonside Christchurch	18 months 7 years	In the house of Regr R. Minton	75/803		2 April 1875	Rev. R. Minton
3620	5 April 1875	Stephen Stradom Emma Maria Humphrey	Stephen Hudson Emma Maria Humphrey 💍 1875/1137	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk do	27 29	Christchurch do	6 months 3 months	Lyttelton Chapel	75/1002		5 April 1875	Rev. J. Buller
3621	5 April 1875	James Robert Henry Elizabeth Ann Francis	James Robert Henry Elizabeth Ann Francis 💍 1875/949	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Milliner	29 25	Christchurch do	6 months 4 months	Christchurch	75/992		5 April 1875	Rev. J. Edwards
3622	5 April 1875	Duncan McColl Isabella McColl	Duncan McColl Isobella McColl 💍 1875/1462	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	24 24	Christchurch do	2 years 2 years	In the Roman Catholic Chapel	75/1387		5 April 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3623	5 April 1875	James Brown Fanny Hawkins	James Brown Fanny Hawkins 💍 1875/3095	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 24	Shands Track Lincoln	5 years 4 months	Shands Track	75/1038		5 April 1875	J. C. Cherrier
3624	7 April 1875	Hugh McCulloch Jane McNeely	Hugh McCutchin Jane McNeely 💍 1875/891	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 22	Springston do	6 months 8 weeks	Burnham Church	75/1057		7 April 1875	Rev. H. Sim
3625	8 April 1875	Charles Woodham Annie Cowper	Charles Woodham Annie Cowper 💍 1875/1176	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman Servant	25 17	Christchurch Do	8 years 15 months	In St. Johns Church	75/1098	John Cowper, Father	8 April 1875	Rev. H. M. Watson
3626	8 April 1875	Jonas Day Grace Nowell	Jonas Day Grace Horrell 💍 1875/950	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	28 26	Lake Coleridge do	5 months 3 months	In St. Michaels Church	75/993		8 April 1875	Rev. J. Edwards
3627	9 April 1875	William Duncan Ellen Todd	William Duncan Helen Todd 💍 1875/1442	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	39 30	Christchurch do	14 days 4 months	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/1391		9 April 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3628	9 April 1875	Thomas Denis Nicholas Angelina Hodge		Bachelor Widow	Labourer do	26 35	Christchurch do	16 years 13 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/1392		9 April 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3629	10 April 1875	John Yates Barbara Edwards	John Yates Barbara Edwards 💍 1875/1155	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer do	41 32	Malvern Hills do	7 years 7 years	In the Wesleyan Chapel	75/1004		10 April 1875	Rev. J. Buller

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).