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 617

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
3950	January 1876	Neville Percy Barnett Mary Constance Isobel Rahn	Neville George Barnett Mary Constance Isebel Raher 💍 1876/672	Bachelor Spinster	Professor Music	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	15 months 3 days	In the Church	76/431		26 January 1876	Rev H C M Watson, CofE
3951	January 1876	Morris Upton Lucy Harrison	Morris Upton Lucy Harrison 💍 1876/390	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	25 17	Alford Forrest Alford Forrest	3 days 3 days	In the Office of the Registrar	76/460	William Harrison, Father	26 January 1876	Registrar of Marriages, Geo Parkerson
3952	January 1876	John Rainsley Jones Fanny Bousden	John Rainsley Jones Fanny Vourden 💍 1876/3170	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	35 35	St Albans St Albans	3 months 3 months	Church	76/3194		28 January 1876	Rev F. Knowles, CofE
3953	January 1876	Ambrose Karsh Annie Henderson	Ambroise Karst Annie Henderson 💍 1876/389	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	36 33	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 2 months	In the Registrars Office	76/459		28 January 1876	Registrar of Marriages, Geo Parkerson
3954	January 1876	Joseph Parr Allen Mary Ann Read	Joseph Parr Allen Mary Ann Read 💍 1876/764	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	22 25	Christchurch Christchurch	14 years 3 days	In St Lukes Church	76/3200		28 January 1876	Rev F. Knowles, CofE
3955	February 1876	Thomas Brown Sarah Gordon	Thomas Brown Sarah Gordon 💍 1876/1492	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	30 22	Christchurch, Kaiapoi Christchurch	2 years 18 months	In the house of Rev C Fraser	76/1530		1 February 1876	Rev C Fraser, Pres
3956	February 1876	John Topp Mary Ann Faijah	John Topp Mary Ann Farquhar 💍 1876/1491	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Servant	22 22	Little River Little River	4 years 4 years	In the house of Rev I. M. McIntosh	76/1529		1 February 1876	Rev I. M. McIntosh, Pres
3957	February 1876	James Davidson Harper Grace Ellery	James Davidson Harper Grace Ellen Henrietta Lee 💍 1876/413	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	24 20	St Albans Halswell	3 days 20 years	In the house, Lakeside, of Mr Moffet	76/468	Abigail Moffet, mother	1 February 1876	Rev S. W. Cree, Pres
3958	February 1876	John Francis Smith Henrietta Lee		Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	21	Christchurch Tuam Street	2 years	In the house, Christchurch	76/1532		1 February 1876	Rev C Fraser, Pres
3959	February 1876	James Robertson Jane Wilkinson		Bachelor Spinster	Baker	30 21	Christchurch Christchurch	14 years 10 days	In the Registrars Office	76/458		3 February 1876	Registrar of Marriages, Geo Parkerson
3960	February 1876	John Johnston Elizabeth Press	James Wilkinson Elizabeth Press 💍 1876/388	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	25 26	Waltham [illegible]	6 months 10 days	In the Scotch Church	76/1531		3 February 1876	Rev C Fraser, Pres
		Jane Sophia Cox		Spinster	Seamstress	25	Opawa	2 years

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).