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 563

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
3641	16 April 1875	John Jackson Mary Isabella Welsh	John Jackson Mary Isobella Welsh 💍 1875/1448	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	21 21	Riccarton Addington	21 Years 5 months	In the house of Rev C. Fraser	75/1394		16 April 1875	Rev C. Fraser
3642	19 April 1875	Richard Jones Owen Sarah Priscilla Austin	Richard Jones Owen Sarah Drisilla Austin 💍 1875/1177	Bachelor Spinster	Potter Servant	30 19	Christchurch Christchurch	2 Years 12 Years	In the Church of St. John	75/1099	John Austin, Father	19 April 1875	Rev S. McWatson
3643	19 April 1875	Clark McCausland Mary Jane Brown	Clark McClunland Mary Jane Brown 💍 1875/1449	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 21	Malvern Malvern	15 months 1 Year	In the house of Mr. Dobson	75/1398		19 April 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3644	19 April 1875	Thomas Atkins Mary Jane Jebson	Thomas Atkinson Mary Jane Jebson 💍 1875/795	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	34 27	Christchurch Malvern	3 Years 9 Years	In the house of Mr. Jebson	75/1864		19 April 1875	Rev. S. Macfarlane
3645	20 April 1875	Thomas Strachan Margaret Mortel	Thomas Thomahan Margaret Mortel 💍 1875/1041	Widower Spinster	Bootmaker Cook	32 30	Christchurch Christchurch	12 Years 15 Years	In the house of Mr. Strachan	75/1112		20 April 1875	Rev. J. Aldred
3646	20 April 1875	William Woodham Alice Say	William Woodham Avice Day 💍 1875/1044	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	21 18	Woolston Woolston	11 Years 4 Years	St. Lukes Church	75/1115	Selina Thursey, Mother	20 April 1875	Rev. J. A. Lingard
3647	20 April 1875	Sydney Joseph Simpson Mary Hannah Buxton	Sydney Joseph Simpson Mary Hannah Buxton 💍 1875/1047	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Milliner	22 23	Christchurch Christchurch	7 Years 3 Years	St. Lukes Church	75/1118		20 April 1875	Rev. J. A. Lingard
3648	21 April 1875	Robert Garsley Caroline Morgan	Robert Dearsley Caroline Morgan 💍 1875/1450	Bachelor Widow	Farmer Hotelkeeper	44 47	Paparua Halkett	14 Years 8 months	In the house of William Rawley	75/1399		21 April 1875	Rev. J. Buller
3649	26 April 1875	Arthur William Cleveland Emmeline Jane Love	Arthur William Cleveland Emmeline Hurst Lane 💍 1875/535	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	29 20	Merivale Merivale	3 days 12 Years	Church	75/1654	William Hannibal, Father	26 April 1875	Rev F. Knowles
3650	26 April 1875	Franklin Hodge Bessie White	Franklin Hodges Bessie White 💍 1875/1456	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	22 19	Christchurch Christchurch	9 Years 2 Years	In the house of Rev C. Fraser	75/1404	Elizabeth Hodge, Mother	26 April 1875	Rev C. Fraser
3651	27 April 1875	Charles Parker Mary Ellen Troy	Charles Parker Mary Ellen Troy 💍 1875/1455	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	27 28	Christchurch Christchurch	4 months 4 months	In the house of Mrs. Quinlan	75/1815		27 April 1875	Rev. J. R. Belliard

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).