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 637

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
4156	4 July 1876	James Purves Wilson Jane Stilwell	James Purves Wilson Jane Stilwell 💍 1876/1904	Bachelor Spinster	Minister	30 21	Pubbleton Pubbleton	6 months 21 years	In Mariners Hotel Christchurch	76/1940	4 July 1876	Rev W. Stocker
4157	4 July 1876	James Purves Wilson Jane Stilwell	James Purves Wilson Jane Stilwell 💍 1876/1904	Bachelor Spinster	Minister	30 21	Pubbleton Pubbleton	6 months 21 years	In St Michaels Church	76/1942	4 July 1876	Rev H.J. Edwards
4158	5 July 1876	Rudolphus Camille Lewis Emma Pratt	Kindersley Camillo Montague Lewin Emma Pratt 💍 1876/3155	Bachelor Spinster	Draughtsman	25 21	Halswell Halswell	2 months 2 years	Church	76/1951	5 July 1876	Rev H.B. Howell
4159	5 July 1876	William Slattery Ellen Herphy	Timothy Slattery Ellen Heaphy 💍 1876/1849	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	30 31	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the Roman Catholic Church Christchurch	76/1989	5 July 1876	Rev J.P. Chareyre
4160	5 July 1876	Alfred Coker Eliza Helena Robertson	Alfred Coker Eliza Helena Robertson 💍 1876/2185	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	27 22	Avonside Avonside	14 days 14 days	In Avonside Church	76/2241	5 July 1876	Rev W. Glasson
4161	5 July 1876	Herbert Belfield Emma Lenora Mellish	Herbert Delfield Emma Leonora Mellish 💍 1876/1841	Widower Spinster	Gentleman	42 32	Christchurch Christchurch	6 days 4 months	In St Michaels Church Linwood	76/1943	5 July 1876	Rev H.J. Edwards
4162	6 July 1876	Peter Hargreaves Sarah Stride	Peter Hargreaves Sarah Hide 💍 1876/2855	Widower Spinster	Laborer Servant	28 21	Christchurch Christchurch	12 years 3 years	In the house of Rev C Fraser Christchurch	76/2903	6 July 1876	Rev C Fraser
4163	7 July 1876	William Wallace Ellen Watson	William Wallace Ellen Watson 💍 1876/1906	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	36 26	Russells Flat Russells Flat	1 year 1 year	In the house of Mr W. Wellett	76/1952	7 July 1876	Rev H.J.L. [illegible]
4164	8 July 1876	James Papps Margaret Galloway	James Papps Margaret Gallagher 💍 1876/1850	Bachelor Widow	Laborer Servant	22 23	Christchurch Christchurch	10 months 15 months	In the Roman Catholic Church Christchurch	76/1990	8 July 1876	Rev J.P. Chareyre
4165	8 July 1876	Charles Wilson Harriet Pattrick	Charles Wilson Harriet Pattrick 💍 1876/2765	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Dressmaker	24 27	Christchurch Christchurch	19 years 23 years	In the house of Rev C Fraser	76/2904	8 July 1876	Rev C Fraser
4166	10 July 1876	George Clark Matilda Shannon	George Clark Matilda Shannon 💍 1876/2776	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	24 22	Courtenay Courtenay	1 year 10 months	In the house of Rev C Fraser	76/2905	10 July 1876	Rev C Fraser

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).