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 629

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
4068	1 May 1876	Jeremiah Applegard Mary Love	Jeremiah Appleyard Mary Doe 💍 1876/1826	Widower Spinster	Wheelwright Servant	43 27	Sandhills Sandhills	3 years 4 months	In St. Mary's Church, Heathcote	76/1503		1 May 1876	Rev C. J. Merton, CofE
4069	1 May 1876	Patrick Donnelly Caroline Canard	Patrick Donnelly Catherine Canavan 💍 1876/1004	Widower Spinster	Porter Servant	34 24	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 3 months	In the Roman Catholic Church, Christchurch	76/944		1 May 1876	Rev J. P. Chareyre, RC
4070	1 May 1876	Peter Schore Maria Anderson	Peter Sihou Maria Anderson 💍 1876/1621	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	29 27	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the House, Lyttelton	76/1500		1 May 1876	Rev C. Fraser, Pres
4071	2 May 1876	Francis Dufrates Nora O'Brien	Francisco Dufrater Honora O'Brien 💍 1876/1015	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman Servant	25 26	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 5 weeks	In the Roman Catholic Church, Alford Forest	76/945		2 May 1876	Rev J. P. Chareyre, RC
4072	2 May 1876	Walter William Wright Elizabeth Lawrey	Walter William Wright Elizabeth Lawrey 💍 1876/1364	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer [illegible]	26 29	Springston Springston	10 years 6 years	In the House of Mr Lawrey, Springston	76/1335		2 May 1876	Rev W. Cannell, [illegible]
4073	2 May 1876	Samuel Haushey Maria McGuiness	Samuel Richard Guy Mary McGuiness 💍 1876/2280	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	24 28	Christchurch Christchurch	3 weeks 3 weeks	In the Roman Catholic Church, Christchurch	76/946		2 May 1876	Rev J. P. Chareyre, RC
4074	3 May 1876	Thomas Boyce Mary Connor	Thomas Boyd Mary O'Connor 💍 1876/1371 Thomas Snele Mary Ann Knox 💍 1876/2916 Thomas Riddle Mary McConnell 💍 1876/2450 Thomas Barry Mary Chahertz 💍 1876/2071	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer [illegible]	27 23	Christchurch Christchurch	14 days 14 days	In the Church of St Michael, Christchurch	76/1341		3 May 1876	Rev H. J. Edwards, CofE
4075	3 May 1876	Thomas Summerton Jane Earnshaw	Thomas Somerton Jane Earnshaw 💍 1876/1632	Widower Spinster	Mechanic Servant	29 19	Christchurch Christchurch	14 years 10 years	In the House, Tuam Street	76/1561	No person having authority	3 May 1876	Rev C. Fraser, Pres
4076	5 May 1876	William Tegler Ann Maria Smeed	William Pegler Ann Moore Smeed 💍 1876/1372	Bachelor Spinster	Coachman Milliner	26 27	Christchurch Christchurch	3 months 1 day	In the Church of St Michael, Christchurch	76/1342		5 May 1876	Rev H. J. Edwards, CofE
4077	8 May 1876	Thomas McCausland Ellen Mayers	Thomas McCausland Eliza Margaret McCausland 💍 1876/1640	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner Servant	22 21	Malvern Christchurch	2 years 3 weeks	In the House of Rev C. Fraser	76/1564		8 May 1876	Rev C. Fraser, Pres
4078	8 May 1876	Peter Friedrich Cole Elizabeth Cole		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer [illegible]	32 26	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 4 days	In the Roman Catholic Church, Christchurch	76/947		8 May 1876	Rev J. P. Chareyre, RC

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).