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 575

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 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
3763	29 July 1875	William Hardie Keith Sarah Topping	William Hardie Keith Sarah Topping 💍 1875/1552	Bachelor Spinster	Cattle dealer Servant	21 21	Opawa Opawa	2 weeks 2 weeks	In the house of R. a. F. Douglas	75/1625		29 July 1875	R. a. F. Douglas
3764	31 July 1875	Henry Edward Goodeve Alice Mary Sauntry	Henry Edward Goodeve Alice Mary Gundry 💍 1875/1725	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	22 17	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 8 years	Church	75/1493	Samuel Sauntry, Father	31 July 1875	R. G. Cholmondeley
3765	2 August 1875	John Mathew Mallure Mary Shane	John Matthew Molluza Mary Shanahan 💍 1875/1739	Widower Spinster	Dealer Servant	42 32	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 1 year	In the Roman Catholic Church	75/1483		2 August 1875	Revd H. Belliance
3766	3 August 1875	George Brown Steward Mary Coe	George Stewart Mary Coe 💍 1875/1696	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser Servant	22 24	Avonville Avonville	9 months 6 months	In the house of R. I. Buller	75/1454		3 August 1875	Rev. I. Buller
3767	4 August 1875	Harry Youngman Margaret Falloon	Harry Youngman Margaret Falloon 💍 1875/1703	Bachelor Spinster	Timber merchant Servant	27 19	Christchurch Christchurch	2 days 6 months	In the house of R. I. Buller, Oxford	75/1458		4 August 1875	Rev. I. Buller
3768	4 August 1875	Thomas John Palmer Clara Houston	Thomas John Robin Palmer Clara Johnston 💍 1875/1705	Bachelor Spinster	Coachsmith Governess	26 25	Christchurch Christchurch	15 months 15 months	Wesleyan Church	75/1460		4 August 1875	Rev. I. Buller
3769	5 August 1875	Joseph Lilley Leah Mulford	Joseph Lilley Leah Mulford 💍 1875/1806	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	27 18	Courtenay Courtenay	11 years 6 months	Church	75/1842	James Mulford, Father	5 August 1875	Rev. G. St. Gould
3770	5 August 1875	Claude Revans Eliza Little	Clarke Revand Eliza Little 💍 1875/1704	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 20	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 15 months	In the house of Matthew Little	75/1459	Matthew Little, Father	5 August 1875	Rev. I. Buller
3771	5 August 1875	Charles Harris King Sarah Buck	Charles Francis King Sarah Bull 💍 1875/2794	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Cook	27 32	Christchurch Christchurch	16 years 2 years	In the house of R. C. Fraser	75/3040		5 August 1875	Rev C. Fraser
3772	5 August 1875	Charles Henry Burry Mary Burns	Charles Henry Walter Mary Burns 💍 1875/3203	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	31 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 months	In the Scotch Parsonage Church	75/3039		5 August 1875	Rev C. Fraser
3773	6 August 1875	John Henry Margaret Jane Wall	John Henry Margaret Jane Watt 💍 1875/2075 John Henry Matilda Janet Raynes 💍 1875/907	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	33 30	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 15 months	In the house of Mr. Wall	75/2080		6 August 1875	Rev. a. F. Douglas

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).