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 565

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
3663	4 May 1875	James William Hearn Marie Jane Farrant	James William Wearn Marie Jane Farrant 💍 1875/1722	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	25 18	Christchurch Addington	5 months 4 years	Addington Church	75/190	Farrant, Father	4 May 1875	Very Rev Dean Jacobs
3664	5 May 1875	John Hempstalk Eliza Dahl	John Henrystalk Eliza Dahl 💍 1875/951	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	32 26	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 2 years	St. Michaels Church Christchurch	75/994		5 May 1875	De B Horell
3665	5 May 1875	William Nicholls Sarah Sheldon	William Nicholls Sarah Sheldon Dixon 💍 1875/1083 William Nicholls Mary Jane Ginnell 💍 1875/3196	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger Do	23 20	Woolston Woolston	7 years 15 years	Woolston Church	75/229	Sheldon, Father	5 May 1875	Rev. R. J. Cholmondeley
3666	6 May 1875	Robert Henry Walker Mary Catherine Warren	Robert Henry Walker Mary Catheren Warren 💍 1875/1269	Bachelor Widow	Strawman Strawmaker	25 28	Christchurch Christchurch	12 days in the Scotch Rangiora Church 4 months	Scotch Rangiora Church	75/1406		6 May 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3667	6 May 1875	John Lloyd Mary Mary Surry	John Lloyd Mary Berry 💍 1875/1157	Bachelor Widow	Sailmaker Servant	29 34	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year in the house 10 months	Mr. Buller	75/1006		6 May 1875	Mr. Buller
3668	6 May 1875	Arthur Charles Newton Mary Kate Drury	Arthur Charles Newton Mary Kate De Renzy Gordon 💍 1875/1046	Bachelor Spinster	Min Merchant Do	22 23	Christchurch Christchurch	6 months in St. Lukes Church 12 years	St. Lukes Church	75/1117		6 May 1875	Rev. E. A. Lingard
3669	7 May 1875	William Fawcett Mary Rutherford	William Fawcett Mary Rutherford 💍 1875/1287	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	37 29	Christchurch Christchurch	2 months in the Scotch Church 2 years	Scotch Church	75/1469		7 May 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3670	7 May 1875	John Murphy Sarah Tregeagle	John Murphy Sarah Tregeagle 💍 1875/1102	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Servant	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	6 months in Avonside 8 months	Avonside	75/1223		7 May 1875	Rev. T. Elmslie
3671	10 May 1875	John Bark Emma Barnard	John Burt Emma Barnard 💍 1875/1045	Bachelor Spinster	Coachowner Do	26 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days in St. Lukes Rangiora Church 18 months	St. Lukes Rangiora Church	75/1116		10 May 1875	Rev. E. A. Lingard
3672	10 May 1875	William Petersen Amelia Sparrow	William Peterson Amelia Sparrow 💍 1875/677	Bachelor Spinster	Brakesman Cook	26 29	Christchurch Christchurch	13 months in the house 2 years	Mr. Webster	75/804		10 May 1875	Mr. Webster
3673	10 May 1875	Edwin Wood Emily Edmonds	Edwin Hyland Tupper Wood Emily Edmunds 💍 1875/1159	Widower Spinster	Sawyer Servant	36 24	Christchurch Christchurch	9 months in the house 6 months	Dr. Hayden	75/1008		10 May 1875	Dr. Hayden

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).