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 639

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
4178	15 July 1876	James Stuart Hannah Mary Alexander	James Stewart Hannah Mary Alexander 💍 1876/3204	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 20	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 6 months	In the house of R.C. Frew	76/12906	Thomas Alexander, Father	15 July 1876	R.C. Frew, Pres
4179	17 July 1876	George Liggins Sarah Price	George Squire Sarah Line 💍 1876/1860	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	32 21	Addington Addington	3 Years	Registrar's Office Christchurch	76/11974		17 July 1876	Registrar of Marriages, J.W.Parkerson
4180	17 July 1876	Thomas Ryan Mary Buckley	Thomas Ryan Mary Buckley 💍 1876/1855 George Eaton Mary Buckley 💍 1876/378	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	29 27	Christchurch Christchurch	7 Years	In the Roman Catholic Church	76/11994		17 July 1876	Rev J.P. Chareyre, Rly
4181	17 July 1876	James Copeland Margaret Gardener	James Copland Margaret Gardener 💍 1876/2783	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	32 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 months 1 Month	In the house of R.C. Frew	76/12908		17 July 1876	R.C. Frew, Pres
4182	17 July 1876	Isaac Davies Harriet Virginia Brake	Isaac Davies Harriet Georgina Beake 💍 1876/2782	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	33 26	Christchurch Prebbleton	4 months Tuam Street	In the house of R.C. Frew	76/12907		17 July 1876	R.C. Frew, Pres
4183	21 July 1876	William Stodger Mary Jane Richards	William Hodge Mary Jane Richards 💍 1876/1843	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	24 18	Christchurch Christchurch	11 months 3 days	In the house of William Hodge	76/11983	There is no person whose Authority is required	21 July 1876	Rev W. Lockwood, United
4184	22 July 1876	Annie Olsen William Wegg		Bachelor [illegible]	Servant Groom	22 23	Christchurch Christchurch	4 Years	In the house of Rev I. Elmslie	76/12285		22 July 1876	Rev I. Elmslie, Pres
4185	22 July 1876	Charles Scrim Sarah Farlaugh	Charles Scown Sarah Farland 💍 1876/1893	Bachelor Spinster	Traveller	27 21	Christchurch Christchurch	10 months	In the house of Mr Scrim	76/11962		22 July 1876	Rev I. Berry, Wes
4186	24 July 1876	John William Parker Mahalah Stumm	John William Parker Malahah Humm 💍 1876/1846	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	30 28	Malvern Riccarton		Methodist Chapel Christchurch	76/11986		24 July 1876	Rev D. I. Westbrook
4187	24 July 1876	George Summerville Sarah Marshall	George Summerville Sarah Marshall 💍 1876/1856	Widower Widow	Farmer Farmer	36 35	Hororata Hororata		Catholic Church Christchurch	76/11995		24 July 1876	Rev J.P. Chareyre, Rly
4188	27 July 1876	William Thompson Florence Thorne	William Thompson Florence Horne 💍 1876/2784	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 17	Christchurch Christchurch	10 Years 2 years	In the house of R.C. Frew	76/12909	James Thorne, Father	27 July 1876	R.C. Frew, Pres

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).