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 631

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
4090	13 May 1876	James Monteith Jane Miller	James Vining Annie Miller 💍 1876/2143	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Dressmaker	25 22	Christchurch Christchurch	6 months 6 months	In the House	76/1566		13 May 1876	Rev E. Fraser, Pres
4091	15 May 1876	Joseph Henderson Sarah Mercer	Joseph Henderson Sarah Mercer 💍 1876/1643	Bachelor Widow	Laborer Servant	22 27	Waltham Waltham	3 days 3 days	In the House	76/1567		15 May 1876	Rev E. Fraser, Pres
4092	15 May 1876	George Wood Annie Roach	George Wood Annie Roach 💍 1876/1644	Bachelor Widow	Laborer Servant	26 38	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 6 months	In the House	76/1568		15 May 1876	Rev E. Fraser, Pres
4093	15 May 1876	Archibald Currie Amelia Ann Bromell Edwards	Archibald Currie Amelia Anne Bronnet Edwards 💍 1876/904	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	26 21	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 8 years	In the Merivale Church	76/1919		15 May 1876	Rev J.W. Stack, CofE
4094	15 May 1876	William John Holmes Margaret Frances Marker	William John Holmes Widdicombe Margaret Frances Barker 💍 1876/1017 William John Sparkes Margaret Ann Howard 💍 1876/2907	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	26 20	Christchurch Christchurch	6 days 6 days	In the Registrars Office	76/1964	Thomas William Barker, Father	15 May 1876	Registrar Marriages, J.W. Parkerson
4095	16 May 1876	Robert Foxall Jane Webster	Robert Foxall Restieaux Jane Webster 💍 1876/1349 Ebenezer Robertson Cardno Jane Webster 💍 1876/2375	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22 22	New Town Cashmere	3 years 3 months	In the Church of St. Michael	76/1345		16 May 1876	Rev H.J. Edwards, CofE
4096	17 May 1876	William Lundy Honora Higgins	William Ludy Honora Higgins 💍 1876/1027	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	34 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 months 4 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	76/1951		17 May 1876	Rev J.P. Chareyre, R.C.
4097	18 May 1876	George Pawsey Margaret Perkus	George Pawsey Margaret Perdue 💍 1876/1018	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	25 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the Registrars Office	76/1965		18 May 1876	Registrar Marriages, J.W. Parkerson
4098	19 May 1876	Edward Parkerson Adeline Mount Newman	Edward Parkerson Ada Jane Mount Newman 💍 1876/1343	Bachelor Spinster	Land Agent	31 25	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 1 year	In St. Michael's Church	76/1344		19 May 1876	Rev J.S. Edwards, CofE
4099	19 May 1876	Thomas William King Annie Smith	John Ryan Annie Smith 💍 1876/1519	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	23 22	Avonside Avonside	3 years 3.5 years	In St. Luke's Church	76/1931		19 May 1876	Rev E.A. Lingard, CofE
4100	19 May 1876	Charles Smith Ellen Ryle		Bachelor Widow	Laborer	23 35	Avonside Papanui	3.5 years 5 months	In the House of Mr Baker	76/1569		19 May 1876	Rev C. Fraser, Pres
	19 May 1876	John Duly		Bachelor	Laborer	30	Papanui	5 months

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).