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 655

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 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
4346	15 December 1876	Thomas John Stubberfield Eliza Sargeant	Thomas John Stubberfield Eliza Sargent 💍 1876/2655	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	27 26	Christchurch Papanui	2 Years 1 Year	In the house of Mr. Sargeant, Papanui	76/2724		15 December 1876	Rev. J. Crump
4347	15 December 1876	James Indran Mary Ann Cassidy	James Moran Mary Ann Cassidy 💍 1876/2902	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 24	Christchurch Christchurch	1 Month 3 Years	In the Roman Catholic Church, Christchurch	76/3000		15 December 1876	Rev. P. Chareyre
4348	15 December 1876	James Gaul Mary Kenny	James Eagan Mary Kenny 💍 1876/2901	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Days 3 Months	In the Roman Catholic Church, Christchurch	76/2999	Authority of H.M.S.	15 December 1876	Rev. J. P. Chareyre
4349	18 December 1876	Charles George Frederick Money Amy Thwaites	Charles George Frederick Money Amy Hinton 💍 1876/2891	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	23 22	Christchurch Springfield Road	2 Years 16 Years	St. Lukes Church	76/2990		18 December 1876	Rev. S. A. Lingard
4350	18 December 1876	Thomas Watkin Elizabeth White	Thomas Wallis Elizabeth White 💍 1876/2541	Widower Widow	Bootmaker Nurse	45 50	Christchurch Christchurch	4 Days 3 Years	Oxford Registrars Office, Christchurch	76/2353		18 December 1876	Registrar of Marriages, W. H. Revell
4351	19 December 1876	Edward Winter Mary Jane McEvoy	Edward Winter Mary Jane McEvedy 💍 1876/2863	Widower Widow	Bootmaker	32 29	Christchurch Christchurch	1 Week 4 Years	In the house, Southbridge	76/2954		19 December 1876	Rev. C. Fraser
4352	19 December 1876	Thomas Weaver Agnes Louisa Downing	Thomas Weaver Agnes Louisa Downing 💍 1876/2954	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 18	Christchurch Christchurch	6 Days 6 Days	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser, Tuam Street	76/2952	James Downing, Father	19 December 1876	Rev. C. Fraser
4353	20 December 1876	William Jones Emily Grayton	William Jones Emily Drayton 💍 1876/2616 William Jones Emily Eliza Romey 💍 1876/915	Bachelor Widow	Blacksmith Storekeeper	30 38	Riccarton Riccarton	3 Months 15 Years	In the Fendalton Church	76/2737		22 December 1876	Rev. F. A. Hare
4354	23 December 1876	Henry Wakefield Elgie	Henry Wakefield Agnes Algie 💍 1876/2874	Bachelor Spinster	Builder Servant	26 21	Newtown Newtown	1 Year 1 Year	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser, Christchurch	76/2950	William Wakefield, Father	23 December 1876	Rev. C. Fraser
4355	23 December 1876	Walter George Barker Charlotte Adelaide Schmidt	Walter George Barker Charlotte Adelaide Schmidt 💍 1876/2654	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	23 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Days 10 Years	In the house, Motuekau	76/2723		23 December 1876	Rev. J. Berry
4356	23 December 1876	Thomas Stokes Caroline Weaver	Thomas Stokes Caroline Weavers 💍 1876/2608	Widower Widow	Carpenter	40 35	Christchurch Southbridge	21 Years 2 Years	In the Leeston Church, Ellesmere	76/2757		23 December 1876	Rev. W. Harper

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).