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 589

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
3916	23 December 1875	Francis McGuire Margaret McMahon	Francis McGuire Margaret McMahon 💍 1875/11	Widower Spinster	Farmer Servant	35 30	Shands Track St. Albans	12 years 1 year	In the Roman Catholic Church	75/3166		23 December 1875	Rev. I. P. Chareyre
3917	24 December 1875	James Mallard Kate Selina Vickers	John Mallard Kate Selina Vickery 💍 1875/3043	Bachelor Spinster	Market Gardener	22 18	Papauui Upper Riccarton	18 years 18 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/3164	John Vickers, Father	24 December 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3918	24 December 1875	William Baxter Elizabeth Reacher	William Carter Elizabeth Harvey 💍 1876/455 William Baxter Makins Elizabeth Archer 💍 1875/2283 William Hopper Elizabeth Lowe 💍 1875/2732 William Stacey Elizabeth Couch 💍 1876/1483 William Claxton Elizabeth Forsyth 💍 1875/1735 William Burrows Elizabeth Lee 💍 1875/521 William Hart Elizabeth Young 💍 1875/1023 William Agnew Elizabeth Hardy 💍 1875/2538 William Pearce Elizabeth Kelly 💍 1875/2726 William Hinde Elizabeth May 💍 1875/2439 William Hagan Elizabeth Jones 💍 1875/2537 William Hogan Elizabeth Stanley 💍 1875/2058 William Sloan Elizabeth McGee 💍 1875/1494 William Smith Elizabeth Henderson 💍 1876/593 William Luscombe Elizabeth Hinches 💍 1875/2020 William Hollern Elizabeth Jane Dale 💍 1875/541 William Kerr Elizabeth Montgomery 💍 1876/800 William Mytton Elizabeth Austin 💍 1876/56 William Smith Elizabeth Cook 💍 1876/302 William Whiltoch Elizabeth Reynolds 💍 1876/583 William Brownell Elizabeth Harding 💍 1875/652	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith Servant	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	5 months 5 months	In the Congregational Church	75/2465		24 December 1875	Rev. W. S. Habens
3919	24 December 1875	Phillip James Parke Harriet Bowes	Philip James Parke Harriett Bowes 💍 1875/2532	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith Servant	20 21	Malvern Malvern	10 months 10 months	In the house of Mr. Parke	75/2463	Phillip Parke, Father	24 December 1875	Rev. I. I. Pendray
3920	24 December 1875	Charles Redfern Caroline Sarah Holt	Charles Redfern Caroline Sarah Holt 💍 1876/121	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 23	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 5 years	In St. Michael's Church	75/134		24 December 1875	Rev. St. I. Edwards
3921	27 December 1875	George Miller Mary Roan	George Miller Mary Sloan Speirs 💍 1875/3052	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	23 22	Christchurch Christchurch	11 months 15 months	In the house of Mr. Speirs	75/3218		27 December 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3922	27 December 1875	John Telford Elizabeth Stile	John Tifford Elizabeth Hill 💍 1875/2952 John Tod Elizabeth Blair 💍 1875/1281 John Hesford Mary Elizabeth Worgan 💍 1875/2399 John Bell Elizabeth Walker 💍 1875/1219 John Meadows Elizabeth Coulson 💍 1875/2926 John Withers Elizabeth Grinder 💍 1875/2581	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	27 26	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 17 months	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/3166		27 December 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3923	27 December 1875	Alexander Thorne Mary Prate	Alexander Horne Mary Pratt 💍 1875/2941 James Alexander Phairs Mary Phair 💍 1875/2547	Bachelor Spinster	Shipwright Servant	39 29	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 7 days	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/3165		27 December 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3924	28 December 1875	George Phillip Kissel Catherine Sutherland	George Phillip Kissel Catherine Sutherland 💍 1876/1482	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	30 33	Templeton Sprey don	1 year 6 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	75/1521		28 December 1875	Rev. C. Fraser
3925	30 December 1875	Thomas Shardalow Clara Constance Thornton	Thomas Shardahn Sweets Clara Constance Thornton 💍 1876/401	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	25 20	Christchurch Sweet	2 years 13 years	In the Wesleyan Church	75/3044	George Thornton, Father	30 December 1875	Rev. I. Buller
3926	30 December 1875	James Lane Eliza Sage	James Dawe Eliza Sage Cook 💍 1876/762 James Hair Eliza Miller 💍 1875/3234 James Rae Eliza Griffin 💍 1875/1625 James Wallace Eliza Moore 💍 1875/801	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman Cook	31 32	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 7 years	In the Church of H. Hulke	75/698		30 December 1875	Rev. R. A. Lingard

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).