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 635

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
4134	14 June 1876	Alexander Walker Reid Holmslie		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 22	Malvern Halkett	5 years 5 years	In the house, Christchurch	76/1584		14 June 1876	Rev C. Fraser, Pres
4135	14 June 1876	James Whyte Thomas Dowale		Bachelor [illegible]	Farmer	23	Papanui	17 years	In the Methodist Chapel	76/1334		14 June 1876	Rev H. R. Willinton, United
4136	15 June 1876	David Aiken Elizabeth Ann Taylor		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	28 22	Papanui Addington	3 years 6 months	In the house, Papanui	76/944		15 June 1876	Rev F. G. Brittan, CofE
4137	17 June 1876	William Wheel Mary Green	William Nancekivell Mary Breeze 💍 1876/504 William Sherman Mary Crisp 💍 1876/2663 William Munro Mary Heelon 💍 1876/883 William Sheehan Mary Moore 💍 1876/1280 William Hitchell Mary Napier 💍 1876/1909	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer Servant	32 22	Christchurch Papanui	2 years 6 months	Church	76/934		17 June 1876	Rev I. Aldred, Pres
4138	17 June 1876	George Sargent Brown Elizabeth Bradley	Robert Mitchenson Bryant Elizabeth Bradley 💍 1876/1599	Bachelor Widow	Blacksmith	21 33	Malvern Christchurch	9 years 2 years	In the house, Springfield Road	76/1348	Victor House	17 June 1876	Rev I. [illegible]
4139	19 June 1876	George Wiseman Mary Hugo	George Sargent Brown Mary Hugo 💍 1876/1352	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	26 17	Papanui Malvern	16 months 1 year	In the house, Malvern	76/946	Father	19 June 1876	Rev H. J. Gould, CofE
4140	19 June 1876	John Gregory Ann Hewitt		Bachelor Spinster	Sadler	32 18	Christchurch Papanui	4 years 16 years	Church, Papanui	76/1441	Thomas Hewitt, Father	19 June 1876	Rev F. G. Brittan, CofE
4141	19 June 1876	John Robinson Ellen Andrews	John Gregory Harris Ellen Andrews 💍 1876/13	Bachelor Spinster	Stoker Barmaid	28 18	Christchurch Christchurch	4 months 6 months	Church, Christchurch	76/968	No person having authority	19 June 1876	Rev H. Glasson, CofE
4142	19 June 1876	James Woods Eliza Rudd	John Robinson Eliza Rudd 💍 1876/1021	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper Servant	27 21	Selwyn Christchurch	3 months 3 years	In the house, Christchurch			19 June 1876	Registrar of Marriages, District of [illegible]
4143	20 June 1876	John Hunter Raine Edith Annie Patrick		Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer Servant	31 21	Selwyn Selwyn	1 month 3 days	In the Church, Selwyn	76/938	of James Woods	20 June 1876	Rev I. W. Cree, Pres
4144	21 June 1876	Edward Maples Maynie Clarke Macpherson		Bachelor Spinster	Publican	33 29	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years 3 days	Christchurch	76/1443	of John	20 June 1876	Rev H. C. M. Watson, CofE
		Elizabeth Hunter		Spinster		23	Christchurch	8 years	Church	76/1440		21 June 1876	Rev H. Glasson, CofE

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).