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 581

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 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
3828	2 October 1875	Alexander Blyth Elizabeth Adams	Alexander Blyth Elizabeth Adams 💍 1875/2459	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	35 24	Christchurch Burnham	3 days 5 months	In the house of Glais Station	75/2648		2 October 1875	Revd. F. Soyles
3829	4 October 1875	William Hanswork Charter Isabella Buruch	William Wombwell Chartess Isabella Burnet 💍 1875/2864	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	20 18	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 13 years	In the house of Mr. Burnett	75/3094	Thomas Buruch, Father	4 October 1875	Revd. C. Fraser
3830	4 October 1875	Robert Simpson The farmid Jane Wilson	Robert Simpson McDiarmid Jane Wilson 💍 1875/2865 Thomas Wilson Jane Wilson 💍 1876/692	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	25 20	Christchurch Woolston	2 years 10 years	In the house of Mr. Wilson	75/3095		4 October 1875	Revd. C. Fraser
3831	5 October 1875	Jacob Bruland Mary Morrison	Jacob Bruland Mary Morrison 💍 1875/2863 James Orr Mary Morrison 💍 1875/246	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	32 24	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years 3 months	In a true	75/3093		5 October 1875	Revd. C. Fraser
3832	6 October 1875	Joseph Stanley Mary Phelan	Joseph Stanley Mary Phelan 💍 1875/2130 John Halliday Mary Phelan 💍 1875/1280	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 18	Addington Christchurch	3 days 6 weeks	Registrar Office	75/2267	There is no person having authority to consent	6 October 1875	Registrar Marriage, J. W. Patterson
3833	6 October 1875	Thomas Blirasa Thisfield Helen Ann Some	Thomas Blizard Whitfield Helen Anne Dow 💍 1875/3247	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	24 20	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 3 years	In the Church of St. Luke	75/3005	Thomas Some, Father	6 October 1875	Revd. G. A. Luijand
3834	7 October 1875	David Bunt Watten Grace Cairns	David Burt Wotten Grace Cairns 💍 1875/2866	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	23 20	Upsawa Christchurch	4 years 1 year	In the house of Mr. Nicol	75/3096	There is no person having authority to consent	7 October 1875	Revd. C. Fraser
3835	9 October 1875	Joseph Nelson Ellen Lawry	Joseph Jebson Ellen Lawry 💍 1875/2149	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 22	Malvern Malvern	12 years 2 years	In the United Methodist Free Church Sheffield	75/2295		9 October 1875	Revd. I. I. Pendray
3836	11 October 1875	Horace Powells Sarah Genua Meyers	Horace Powell Sarah Jane Meher 💍 1875/2461	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Cook	25 22	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 17 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	75/2649	John Meyers, Father	11 October 1875	Revd. P. McGuinness
3837	11 October 1875	John Lawry Ada Henrietta Nelson	John Lawry Ada Henrietta Jebson 💍 1875/2148	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 20	Malvern Malvern	3 years 8 years	In the United Methodist Chapel Malvern	75/2294	John Nelson, Father	11 October 1875	Revd. I. I. Pendray
3838	11 October 1875	Josiah McClintock Ellen Struker	Josiah McClintock Ellen Streeter 💍 1875/3046	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Cook	30 21	Papanui Papanui	9 years 4 years	In the house of Mr. Fraser	75/3144		11 October 1875	Revd. 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).