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 569

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
3707	4 June 1875	Edward Plant Martha Geddis	Edward Plank Martha Geddis 💍 1875/1062	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Cook	28 26	Papanui Road Avonside	11 months 9 months	In the house	75/1105		4 June 1875	Rev. I. Berry
3708	4 June 1875	Samuel Moncrief Fanny Stokes	Samuel Moncrief Fanny Stokes 💍 1875/1160	Widower Spinster	Gardener Cook	34 24	Christchurch Do	10 years 18 months	In the Wesleyan Church	75/1009		4 June 1875	C. Fraser, pro Rev. I. Buller
3709	5 June 1875	Alexander Watson Smith Alice Ann Smitheram	Alexander Watson Smith Alice Ann Smitheram 💍 1875/1271	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Servant	27 23	Christchurch Do	9 days 10 days	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/1417		5 June 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3710	7 June 1875	William Charlestroyen Isabella Thompson	William Churles Morgan Isobella Thompson 💍 1875/1272	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	23 21	Christchurch Do	13 years 5 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/1418		7 June 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3711	8 June 1875	Thomas Mayetts Sarah Ann Carter	Thomas Margetts Sarah Ann Carter 💍 1875/1274	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	25 18	Christchurch Do	18 months 6 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/1420	Francis Carter, Father	8 June 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3712	8 June 1875	John Campbell Jane Murdoch	John Campbell Jane Murdock 💍 1875/1276 John Campbell Jane Gurner 💍 1875/294 John Campbell Jessie Falconer 💍 1876/1137	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	30 30	Templeton Do	20 months 10 months	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/1422		8 June 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3713	9 June 1875	Thomas Barron Emily Withinghaus	Thomas Barron Emily Nottingham 💍 1875/1279	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 25	Do Christchurch	1 year 11 months	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/1425		9 June 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3714	9 June 1875	Mark Brew Jessie Moody	Mark Brem Jessie Mudie 💍 1875/1273	Bachelor Widow	Farmer Servant	45 32	Christchurch Little River	3 days 9 months	In the house Barry's Bay	75/1419		9 June 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3715	9 June 1875	James Harbehush Sarah Lewis	James Haglehurst Sarah Linies 💍 1875/1275	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 22	Christchurch Do	2 years 2 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/1421		9 June 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3716	11 June 1875	John Burnell Morris Ann Cronin	John Burnett Morris Ann Cronin 💍 1875/959	Bachelor Spinster	Dealer	32 21	Christchurch Do	2 years 11 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	75/1001		11 June 1875	Rev. H. Belliard
3717	11 June 1875	William Carr Margaret Ann Ross	William Carr Margaret Lyon Ross 💍 1875/1285	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman Machinist	23 21	Christchurch Do	1 year 15 months	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/1430		11 June 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).