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 573

District of Christ Church Quarter ending 30 September 1875

[page number is obscured but can be inferred from neighbouring pages]

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
3741	3 July 1875	William McAdam Isabella Cameron	William McAdam Isabella Cameron 💍 1875/3194	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Spinster	38 26	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the house, Tuam Street	75/3031		3 July 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3742	5 July 1875	Alfred Russell Mary Ann Talbot	Alfred Russell Mary Ann Talbot 💍 1875/1615	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Spinster	25 20	Springston Springston	3 days 14 years	In the house	75/1441	John Talbot, Father	5 July 1875	Rev. W. Cannell
3743	5 July 1875	George Johnstone Caroline Farland	George Johnston Caroline Farland 💍 1875/1617	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner Spinster	27 18	Waltham Heathcote Valley	9 months 18 years	In the house	75/1443	Mr. Farland, Father	5 July 1875	Rev. R. Martin
3744	5 July 1875	James Shields Stephenson Mary Jane Duncan	James Shields Stephenson Savage Mary Vale Anncar 💍 1875/1549	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	33 24	Ferrymead Opawa	3 weeks 6 months	In the house	75/1623		5 July 1875	Rev. G. F. Douglas
3745	6 July 1875	William Nicholas Mary Jane Kennard	William Nicholls Mary Jane Ginnell 💍 1875/3196 William Dix Mary Jane Kennell 💍 1875/2979 William Mitchell Mary Jane Williams 💍 1876/481 William Petford Mary Jane Hensley 💍 1875/2151	Bachelor Spinster	Sailmaker Laundress	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	7 months 7 months	In the house, Tuam Street	75/3033		6 July 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3746	7 July 1875	James Ellis Jeannie Senior	James Ellis Jane Senior 💍 1875/2082	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 22	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 1 year	St. Luke's Rangiora Church	75/2086		7 July 1875	Rev. G. A. Lingard
3747	7 July 1875	William McCullough Mary Ann Robinson	William McCullogh Mary Ann Robinson 💍 1875/3195 William Dober Margaret Robinson 💍 1876/1830	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 23	Little River Christchurch	5 days 7 years	In the house, Tuam Street	75/3032		7 July 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3748	9 July 1875	Thomas Jack Catherine Lazell	Thomas Jack Catherine McTaggart 💍 1875/3197	Bachelor Spinster	Boilermaker Dressmaker	20 19	Christchurch Christchurch	16 months 1 year	In the house, Tuam Street	75/3034	Peter Jack, Father. There is no known relation of bride.	9 July 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3749	9 July 1875	Edmund Rylatt Phillis Gait		Bachelor Spinster	Salesman Spinster	24 22	Christchurch Governors Bay	16 years 2 years	Church, Governors Bay	75/1892		9 July 1875	Very Rev. Henry Jacobs
3750	12 July 1875	James Hepburn Janet Craig	James Hepburn Janet Craig 💍 1875/3199	Widower Widow	Labourer Widow	38 35	Christchurch Christchurch	11 years 3 years	In the house, South Belt	75/3035		12 July 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3751	13 July 1875	John Findlay Minnie Shelke	John Findlay Withelmina Schelke 💍 1875/3200	Widower Spinster	Ironmoulder Servant	30 21	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 3 years	In the house	75/3036		13 July 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).