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 571

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
3929	22 June 1875	George Thompson Isabella Miller	George Thompson Isabella Millar 💍 1875/1283	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	36 23	North Road Harewood Road	3 years 12 years	In the house of J. R. C. Fraser	75/1428		22 June 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3930	22 June 1875	Charles Baker Louisa Hill	Charles Were Baker Louisa Gill 💍 1875/797	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	23 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 1 year	In the Methodist Free Chapel	75/869		22 June 1875	Rev. S. Macfarlane
3931	23 June 1875	William Quinton Eliza Jay	William Quinton Eliza Taylor 💍 1875/956	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Housekeeper	24 28	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 1 year	St. Michael's Church	75/998		23 June 1875	Rev. H. J. Edwards
3932	23 June 1875	Alexander McToyle Rose Russell	Alexander McDongh Rose Russel 💍 1875/1282	Bachelor Spinster	Labour Servant	32 27	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 1 year	In the house of J. R. C. Fraser	75/1429		23 June 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3933	23 June 1875	John Kuijar Mary Ann Robinson	John Knight Mary Ann Robinson 💍 1875/1616	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	30 20	Rolleston Rolleston	10 years 6 months	In the Wesleyan Chapel	75/1142	Thompson Robins, Father	23 June 1875	Rev. W. Camell
3934	24 June 1875	John Hodgson Brooks Eliza Catherine Wilson	John Hodgson Brooks Eliza Catherine Wilson 💍 1875/1284	Bachelor Spinster	Driver	20 19	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years 10 years	In the house of Mrs. Brooks	75/1429	Elizabeth Brooks, Mother	24 June 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3935	24 June 1875	Joseph Leverly Ann Jane Chambers	Joseph Lavenry Ann Jane Chambers 💍 1875/1161	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	8 months 2 months	In the house of Rev. J. Buller	75/1010		24 June 1875	Rev. J. Buller
3936	24 June 1875	Troval McNulty Elizabeth Thomas		Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 24	Christchurch Courtenay	4 years 4 years	In the Church at Courtenay	75/1841		24 June 1875	Rev. S. H. Gould
3937	28 June 1875	William Croy Isabella Kenney	William Croy Isabella Deverning 💍 1875/1366	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	35 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the house of J. R. C. Fraser	75/1431		28 June 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3938	29 June 1875	Alfred Westlake Emily Streeter	Alfred Weston Emily Streeter 💍 1875/1614	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	32 23	Tai Tapu Tai Tapu	10 years 12 years	In the Wesleyan Chapel	75/1740		29 June 1875	Rev. W. Camell
3939	29 June 1875	John Gordon Elizabeth Allen	John Gordon Elizabeth Allan 💍 1875/1377 James Gordon Elizabeth Craig 💍 1875/401 John Gordon Emily Newcombe 💍 1875/1721	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	32 32	Cashmere Cashmere	4 years 1 year	In the house of R. C. Fraser	75/1432		29 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).