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 585

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
3872	13 November 1875	James Celfus Boot Sarah Ann Lamb	James Alfred Boot Sarah Ann Lamb 💍 1875/2280	Bachelor Spinster	Pastry Cook Milliner	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	9 months 9 months	In the house of Mr. Rowe	75/2462		13 November 1875	Rev W. J. Habens
3873	15 November 1875	Robert Fitzroy Holderness Jane Constance Coward	Robert Fitzroy Holderniss Jane Constance Cowan 💍 1875/2295	Bachelor Spinster	Inspector	33 22	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 18 years	In the Church of St. Michael	75/2453		15 November 1875	Rev. H. I. Edwards
3874	15 November 1875	Andrew Mauder Ellen Elizabeth Machin	Andrew Mander Ellen Elizabeth Dryhurst 💍 1875/2384	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Machinist	23 16	Christchurch Christchurch	3 months 3 months	In the Baptist Chapel	75/2343	Mother	16 November 1875	Rev R. Martin
3875	15 November 1875	William Thumpson Lydia Alloway	William Thompson Lydia Lloyd 💍 1875/2727	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Servant	30 24	Christchurch Christchurch	12 years 23 years	In St. Luke's Church	75/3006		15 November 1875	Rev. G. A. Lingard
3876	16 November 1875	Thomas Hele Hay Emily Williams	Thomas Bell Hay Emily Williams 💍 1875/3032	Bachelor Spinster	Surgeon	39 25	Christchurch Christchurch	10 months 25 years	In the house of St. Francis	75/3155		16 November 1875	Rev C. Fraser
3877	18 November 1875	Walter Heurn Haddrell Mary Ann Rain	Walter Henry Haddrell Mary Ann Raine 💍 1875/2728	Widower Spinster	Constable	26 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 17 years	In St. Luke's Rangiora Church	75/3007		18 November 1875	Rev. G. A. Lingard
3878	18 November 1875	Sidney Day Alice Sarah Hitchings	Sidney Day Alice Sarah Hitchings 💍 1875/2763	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	25 17	New Town Ferry Road	18 months 2 years	In the Copawa Church	75/2354	James Hitchings, Father	18 November 1875	Rev. G. J. Cholmondeley
3879	19 November 1875	Roger Colquhoun Agnes Lyon	Rodger Colquhoun Agness Lyon 💍 1875/3035	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer Dressmaker	25 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 months 3 months	In the house of Rev C. Fraser	75/3156		19 November 1875	Rev C. Fraser
3880	22 November 1875	William Efford Bessie Murdoch	William Efford Bessie Hardwell 💍 1875/2385	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 19	Springfield Road Springfield Road	13 months 5 days	In the Baptist Chapel	75/2344		22 November 1875	Rev R. Martin
3881	22 November 1875	John Morris Agnes Walker	John Morris Agness Walker 💍 1875/3036	Widower Spinster	Labourer Servant	43 33	Christchurch Christchurch	11 years 2 years	In the house of Mr. Piper	75/3157		22 November 1875	Rev C. Fraser
3882	23 November 1875	Charles Nelson Ellen Neville	Charles Nelson Ellen Neville 💍 1875/3033	Bachelor Widow	Sailor	32 33	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the House of Rev C. Fraser	75/3158		23 November 1875	Rev C. Fraser

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).