Intentions to Marry, 1876

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840388, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Alexandra at Archives NZ Wellington, January 31 2025

A few of the pages are missing.

Page 615

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1876

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
3928	3 January 1876	Robert Skilling Sarah Jane Bright	Robert Skelling Cook Sarah Jane Wright 💍 1876/406	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	26 24	Springston do	4 days 2 years	In the Church	76/484		3 January 1876	Rev. H. Stocker
3929	3 January 1876	Alfred Thomas Hobbs Amelia Slade	Alfred Thomas Hobbs Amelia Slade 💍 1876/395	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	28 21	Christchurch do	3 weeks 6 months	In the Church	76/473		3 January 1876	Rev. H. Glasson
3930	3 January 1876	Berth. Hockin Emily F. Filehr		Bachelor Spinster	Clerk in Holy Orders	26 19	Christchurch Templeton	1 year 3 years	Church	76/130	Father	3 January 1876	Rev. R. Jackson
3931	4 January 1876	John James Brand Frances Newland	John James Grandi Frances Newland 💍 1876/396	Bachelor Spinster	Coachsmith Servant	23 20	Christchurch do	13 years 2 years	In Avonside Church	76/474	Father	4 January 1876	Rev. H. Glasson
3932	5 January 1876	William Stacey Elizabeth Couch	William Stacey Elizabeth Couch 💍 1876/1483	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Servant	26 24	Malvern Addington	9 years 3 months	In the house of Rev C Fraser	76/1522		5 January 1876	Rev. C. Fraser
3933	5 January 1876	Henry Frederick Barnes Jane Murray Burnell		Bachelor Spinster	Draper	25 [illegible]	Wellington Christchurch	4 months 27 months	In the Church, Wellington	76/523		5 January 1876	Rev. C. Fraser
3934	5 January 1876	John David Fowler Sophia Rebecca Walsh	John David Fowler Rebecca Sophy Walsh 💍 1876/661	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Dressmaker	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 2 weeks	In the House of Mr. Walsh, George Street	76/421	of Mr. Walsh	6 January 1876	Rev. W. J. Habens
3935	6 January 1876	Frederick Henry Haselden Matilda Hillier	Frederick Henry Haselden Eliza Matilda Willway 💍 1876/670	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager	29 25	Christchurch do	2 weeks 3 days	In the Church, Muriwhenua	76/429		7 January 1876	Rev. H. C. M. Watson
3936	7 January 1876	Alfred William Carter Emma Eliza Smith	Alfred William Millier Agnes Eliza Sage Smith 💍 1876/1485	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Servant	23 21	Christchurch do	5 years 12 months	In the Church	76/524		8 January 1876	Rev. C. Fraser
3937	10 January 1876	Robert Johnston Esther Ritchie	Robert Johnston Esther Ritchie 💍 1876/1486	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Servant	26 22	Christchurch do	12 months 2 years	In the house	76/525		10 January 1876	Rev. C. Fraser
3938	10 January 1876	Carl Hinrich Dittmann Sophia Augusta Johnson		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	38 26	do Christchurch	2 years 15 months	In the German Church	76/482		10 January 1876	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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).