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 0642

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
4211	17 August 1876	John Macdonald Lucy Patrick	John Macdonald Lucy Patrick 💍 1876/1862	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	37 25	Springston Springston	3 days 1 month	In the Registrar's Office	76/1919		August 17	Registrar of Marriages, D. W. Parkerson
4212	18 August 1876	John O'Rourke Bridget McEvoy	John O'Donnell Bridget McLroy 💍 1876/2029	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	28 22	Waltham Christchurch	6 months 2 years	In the Roman Catholic Church, Christchurch	76/1999		August 18	Revd. J. P. Chareyre, RC
4213	19 August 1876	James Armstrong Helen Highs	James Armstrong Helen Hight 💍 1876/1907	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	23 20	Malvern Malvern	2 years 11 years	In the house of Mrs Highs, Malvern	76/1953	Mother	August 19	Rev. S. H. Gould, [illegible]
4214	19 August 1876	James Robert Sutton Mary Beach	James Robert Sutton Mary Beach 💍 1876/2514	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	31 34	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 10 years	In St John's Church, Christchurch	76/2280		August 19	Rev. H. C. M. Watson, [illegible]
4215	21 August 1876	James Rhodes Mary Rodrigues	James Rhodes Mary Rodriques 💍 1876/2037	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the Roman Catholic Church, Christchurch	76/2000	Father	August 21	Revd. J. P. Chareyre, RC
4216	21 August 1876	Charlton Rowell Elizabeth Roberts	Charlton Rowell Elizabeth Roberts 💍 1876/1863 David Paton Balfour Elizabeth Roberts 💍 1876/2812	Bachelor Spinster	Servant	34 24	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 1 year	In the Registrar's Office, Christchurch	76/1980		August 21	Registrar of Marriages, D. W. Parkerson
4217	21 August 1876	Charles Mede Catherine Annie Cooper	Robert Charles Noedl Catherine Annie Cooper 💍 1876/1890	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	23 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 months 3 months	St Luke's Church, Christchurch	76/1959		August 21	Rev. E. A. Lingard, [illegible]
4218	21 August 1876	Henry Richardson Ann Maria Figures	Henry Richardson Ann Maria Figures 💍 1876/1901	Widower Spinster	Storekeeper	58 21	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 12 months	In the house of Mr Richardson, High Street, Christchurch	76/1969		August 21	Rev. W. Morley, Wes
4219	22 August 1876	William Henry Louisa Jane Lyddon	William Henry Sutcliffe Louisa Jane Lyddon 💍 1876/1889	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Milliner	21 18	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 3 years	In the Church of St Luke, Christchurch	76/1958	There is hope having authority to consent	August 22	Rev. E. A. Lingard, [illegible]
4220	25 August 1876	James Ferguson Boyles Elizabeth Cousins	James Ferguson Douglas Elisabeth Cousins 💍 1876/2766	[illegible] Spinster	Farmer Servant	34 25	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 5 days	In the house of Mr Richardson	76/2914		August 25	Rev. C. Fraser, [illegible]
4221	26 August 1876	George Culverhouse Anna White	George Culverhouse Anna Hutt 💍 1876/1858	Spinster		31 23	Russell's Flat Russell's Flat	2 years 1 year	In St Michael's Church, Christchurch	76/1995		August 26	Very Rev. Dean Jacobs, [illegible]

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).