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 579

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
3807	9 September 1875	Alfred Sharland Jane Cox	Alfred Sharland Jane Cox 💍 1875/2755	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	24 22	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 9 years	In the Church of St John	75/2352	9 September 1875	Rev. H. M. Watson
3808	10 September 1875	William Bruce Matilda Young	William Bruce Martha Young 💍 1875/2834	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the house of J. R. C. Fraser	75/3082	10 September 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3809	13 September 1875	Thomas Cleary Grace Taylor		Bachelor Spinster	Carter	30 22	Christchurch Christchurch	17 years 6 weeks	In the Roman Catholic Church	75/2082	13 September 1875	Rev. J. P. Chareyre
3810	14 September 1875	Thomas Bain Fanny Laws	Thomas Bain Fanny Laws 💍 1875/2077	Widower Spinster	Clerk	35 33	Waltham Waltham	8 months 8 months	In the Church of St Paul	75/2082	14 September 1875	Rev. A. F. Douglas
3811	14 September 1875	Jonah Turner Mary Miller	Jonah Turner Mary Miller 💍 1875/2835	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 21	Stanwood Road Stanwood Road	16 years 21 years	In the house of R. C. Fraser	75/3088	14 September 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3812	14 September 1875	Arthur William Sellars Elizabeth Walker	Arthur William Sellars Elizabeth Walker 💍 1875/2086 John Bell Elizabeth Walker 💍 1875/1219	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	21 22	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 22 years	In the Church of St Luke	75/2090	14 September 1875	Rev. R. A. Lingard
3813	18 September 1875	Clement Wilson Cecile Sophia Jones	Clement Wilson Cecile Sophia Jones 💍 1875/2195	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	27 22	Christchurch Burnside	13 months 2 years	In the Church of St Michael	75/1990	18 September 1875	Rev. H. T. Glasson
3814	20 September 1875	William Booth Justina Welsh	William Booth Valenza Welsh Benjamins 💍 1875/2462	Bachelor Servant	Labourer	22 23	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years 2 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	75/2650	20 September 1875	Rev. J. P. Chareyre
3815	21 September 1875	John Wills Margaret Husband	John Wilis Margaret Husband 💍 1875/2840	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Servant	29 21	Bingley Road Christchurch	2 years 2 years	In the Church of St Michael	75/3070	21 September 1875	Rev. H. T. Glasson
3816	21 September 1875	Alfred Henry Oakles Louisa Ann Turner	Alfred Henry Oakey Louisa Annie Turner 💍 1875/2342	Bachelor Spinster	Tobacconist Servant	25 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 2 1/2 years	In St. Michael's Church	75/2449	21 September 1875	Rev. H. S. Edwards
3817	22 September 1875	John Birth Mary Waite	John Bott Mary Waite 💍 1875/2836	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	34 35	Lincoln Road Lincoln Road	9 years 1 year	In the house of J. R. C. Fraser	75/3289	22 September 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).