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 587

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
3894	6 December 1875	David Simm Frances Easter		Widower Widower	Housekeeper	52 34	Christchurch Christchurch	11 years 5 years	St Michael's Church	75/3011	6 December 1875	Rev. St. J. Edwards
3895	6 December 1875	Edward Barsby Mary Ann Millie	Edward Barsay Reeves Mary Jane Miller 💍 1875/2282	Bachelor Widow	Merchant	35 35	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the Office of Dr. Foster	75/2464	6 December 1875	Rev. W. H. Habens
3896	7 December 1875	Francis Graham Emily Davies	Francis Graham Emily Paries 💍 1875/2298	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	35 24	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 16 months	St Michael's Church	75/2456	7 December 1875	Rev. St. J. Edwards
3897	7 December 1875	Robert Struthers Janet Greig	Robert Struthers Janet Grey 💍 1875/2278	Bachelor Spinster	Tramwayer	33 35	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 weeks	In the house of Mr. Greig, Carlton Road	75/2460	7 December 1875	Rev. J. W. Cree
3898	9 December 1875	Frank Hober Margaret Short	Frank Pobar Margaret Shott 💍 1875/2299	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 years	St Michael's Church	75/2454	9 December 1875	Rev. St. J. Edwards
3899	9 December 1875	David Dickenson Susan Rebecca Seeley	David Dickinson Susan Rebecca Sealy 💍 1875/2379	Widower Spinster	Tanner Servant	33 29	Ferry Road Christchurch	6 years 4 years	Private Residence, Merivale	75/2338	9 December 1875	Rev. F. Knowles
3900	10 December 1875	Robert McAlister Harriet Mary Pitts	Robert MacAlister Harriet Mary Pitts 💍 1875/3037	Bachelor Spinster	Passenger Auditor	30 22	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 7 days	In the house of Mr. Cumming, Wellington	75/3158	10 December 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3901	11 December 1875	Francis Alexander Lillyow Ellen Sickman		Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	31 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser, Tuam Street	75/3160	11 December 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3902	11 December 1875	David Hancombe Harriet Beanism	David Stancombe Harriet Bennison 💍 1875/3039	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	30 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser, Tuam Street	75/3159	11 December 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3903	11 December 1875	Edward Metin Rose Rundale	Edward Breton Rose Randall 💍 1875/2466	Bachelor Spinster	Ballastman Nurse	36 25	Lyttelton Christchurch	2 years 1 week	In the Roman Catholic Church, Lyttelton	75/2657	11 December 1875	Rev. J. P. Chaney
3904	13 December 1875	Diedrich Broscher Margaret Myers		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 23	Papanui Papanui	1 year 2 years	In the German Church	75/2347	13 December 1875	Rev. L. Lohr

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).