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 0627

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 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
4046	15 April 1876	William Long Amelia Ward	William Long Ann Alma Ward 💍 1876/1363	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer [illegible]	26 19	Greendale Broadfields	1 month 8 years	Wesleyan Chapel, Springston	76/1334	George Ward, Father	15 April 1876	Rev W. Cannell, Pres
4047	15 April 1876	Angus McKinnon Mary Louisa Brown	Angus McKinnon Mary Louisa Bowman 💍 1876/3265	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	28 20	Malvern Malvern	11 months 5 years	In the House, Christchurch	76/1558	William Brown, Father	15 April 1876	Rev C. Fraser, Pres
4048	18 April 1876	Alexander Mc[illegible] Jane Cook	Alexander McIntosh Jane Cook 💍 1876/1634	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer [illegible]	22 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 months 3 months	In the House, Christchurch	76/1581	[illegible]	18 April 1876	Rev C. Fraser, Pres
4049	18 April 1876	George Tamblyn Elizabeth Farquhar	George Danby Leng Elizabeth Farquhar 💍 1876/923	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer [illegible]	30 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	Wesleyan Church, Durham Street	76/1922	[illegible]	18 April 1876	Rev J. Berry, Pres
4050	18 April 1876	William Henry Herring Lucy Halder	William Henry Henning Lucy Nalder 💍 1876/928	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Service Officer [illegible]	31 30	Avonside Christchurch	9 months 9 months	St Lukes Church	76/1927	[illegible]	18 April 1876	Rev E. A. Lingard, CofE
4051	18 April 1876	David Patchett Elizabeth Low	David Patchett Elizabeth Lowe 💍 1876/890	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer [illegible]	23 20	North Road North Road	7 years 15 years	Wesleyan Chapel, Papanui	76/1940	John Low, Father	18 April 1876	Rev J. Crump, Pres
4052	20 April 1876	John Foster Jane Scott	John Foster Jane Scott 💍 1876/1370	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Servant	27 22	Riccarton Riccarton	24 years 3 months	St Michaels Church	76/1340	[illegible]	20 April 1876	Rev H. J. Edwards, CofE
4053	20 April 1876	Peter Hamilton Harriet Cooke		Bachelor Spinster	Cab driver Dressmaker	26 30	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 years	In the House, Tuam Street	76/1963	[illegible]	20 April 1876	Rev C. Fraser, Pres
4054	20 April 1876	William Bellamy Mary Chambers	William Bellamy Mary Chambers 💍 1876/1016	Bachelor Widow	Joiner [illegible]	40 27	Papanui Papanui	6 weeks 1 week	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	[illegible]	[illegible]	20 April 1876	Registrar of Marriages, Christchurch
4055	21 April 1876	John Murphy Catherine Mueehay	John Murphy Catherine Mulchacy 💍 1876/919 John Murphy Mary Nolan 💍 1876/2356 George Murphy Catharine Egan 💍 1876/1477	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Servant	29 28	Waltham Waltham	10 years 4 years	Roman Catholic Church, Christchurch	76/1941	[illegible]	21 April 1876	Rev J. P. Chareyre, RC
4056	22 April 1876	Alfred Vilpona Isabella McMillan	Alfred Vipond Isabella McMillan 💍 1876/898	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	22 19	Malvern Malvern	2 years 10 months	Baptist Chapel, Malvern	76/1942	Edward McMillan, Father	22 April 1876	Rev R. Morton, Bapt

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).