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 567

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
3685	20 May 1875	John Cameron Mary Whincop	John Cameron Mary Whincop 💍 1875/1042	Bachelor Widow	Commission Agent	49 49	Christchurch Christchurch	15 years In the house 19 years North Belt		75/1113	Mrs Whincop	20 May 1875	Rev I. Aldred
3686	20 May 1875	Christopher Downham Elizabeth In Three	Christopher Donruhum Elizabeth McIlree 💍 1875/1288 Christopher Brown Emma Elizabeth Ambridge 💍 1875/1518	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	33 22	Lincoln Christchurch	Twelve months In the house 4 days Christchurch		75/1110		26 May 1875	Rev C. Fraser
3687	21 May 1875	John McKinstry Ruth Walker	John McKinstry Ruth Walker 💍 1875/1289	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Milliner	41 38	St. Albans St. Albans	3 years In the house 3 days St. Albans		75/1411		21 May 1875	Rev C. Fraser
3688	21 May 1875	Henry Roberts Emily Bowsher	Henry Roberts Emily Bowsher 💍 1875/954	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	30 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years In St. Michaels Church 9 months Christchurch	St. Michaels Church	75/996		21 May 1875	Rev St. J. Edwards
3689	25 May 1875	Adolphus Lemoth Wilhelmina Lemoth	Adolphus Le Breton Wilhelmina Bennett 💍 1875/1060	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Milliners Mistress	19 25	Waltham Christchurch	11 years In the house of Mr. Le Breton 2 years Waltham		75/1108	Francis Le Breton, Father	22 May 1875	Rev I. Berry
3690	22 May 1875	William Brooks Ellen Waters	William Brooks Ellen Waters 💍 1875/1290	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Servant	35 30	Erasmere Malvern	2 years In the house 1 year In Avon Street		75/1412		22 May 1875	Rev C. Fraser
3691	22 May 1875	James Dutton Bertha Mills	James Dutton Bertha Mills 💍 1875/1061	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Servant	25 20	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years In the Wesleyan Church 3 years Durham Street	Wesleyan Church	75/1109	There is no person having authority to consent	22 May 1875	Rev J. Buller
3692	25 May 1875	Thomas Wilson Mary Ann Horsley	Thomas Wilson Mary Ann Hodgson 💍 1875/796 Thomas Wilson Jane Wilson 💍 1876/692	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days Durham Street 9 years In the Roman Catholic Church		75/1168		25 May 1875	Rev S. Macfarlane
3693	26 May 1875	Patrick O'Connell Alice Louisa Steere	Patrick O'Connell Alice Louisa Steere 💍 1875/958	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Dressmaker	21 19	Christchurch Christchurch	9 years In the Roman Catholic Church 15 years Christchurch	Roman Catholic Church	75/1000	William Steere, Father	26 May 1875	Rev R. J. Belliard
3694	26 May 1875	Henry Burrell Milbrow Hatherley	Henry Burrell Melbrow Hatherway 💍 1875/3096	Bachelor Widow	Gardener	30 40	St. Albans St. Albans	5 years In the Primitive Methodist Chapel 10 years Christchurch	Primitive Methodist Chapel	75/1004		26 May 1875	Rev B. I. Westbrook
3695	27 May 1875	John Bowron Mary Louisa Frost	John Bowman Mary Louisa Frost 💍 1875/1685	Bachelor Spinster	Fitter	30 19	Riccarton Riccarton	2 years In the Wesleyan Church 19 years Durham Street	Wesleyan Church	75/1156	James Frost, Father	27 May 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).