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 634

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
5023	6 June 1876	Edward James Pierey Cennie Coutts	Edward James Piercy Annie Coutts 💍 1876/1532	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith Servant	22 21	Avonside Christchurch	9 years 5 years	In St John's Church	76/1492		June 6 1876	Rev H.C.M. Watson
5024	6 June 1876	Grous Frederick Chambers Jessie Ann Davey	Groves Frederick Chambers Jessie Ann Davey 💍 1876/909	Bachelor Spinster	Cabman Servant	22 15	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 years	In the Church of St Luke	76/932	Lucy Davey, Mother	June 6 1876	Rev R. A. Lingard
5025	6 June 1876	George Cooper Mary Ann Simpson	George Cooper Mary Ann Simpson 💍 1876/1630	Bachelor Spinster	Draper [illegible]	35 22	Christchurch Christchurch South Belt	2 years 2 years	In the house of Mr Simpson	76/1578		June 6 1876	Rev C. Fraser
5026	8 June 1876	John McCann Mary Ann Button	John McCann Mary Ann Button 💍 1876/1629	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer [illegible]	30 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the house of Rev C. Fraser	76/1579		June 8 1876	Rev C. Fraser
5027	8 June 1876	William Hunter Ellen Hunter	William Hunter Helen Hunter 💍 1876/1635	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the house of Rev C. Fraser	76/1582		June 8 1876	Rev C. Fraser
5028	10 June 1876	Richard Henry Burgess Betsy Ferguson Roy	Richard Henry Burgess Betsy Ferguson Roy 💍 1876/1631	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	25 21	Christchurch Seam Street	3 days 1 day	In the house of Rev C. Fraser	76/1579		June 10 1876	Rev C. Fraser
5029	10 June 1876	John Marshall Mary Nelson	John Marshall Mary Nelson 💍 1876/1903	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	20 22	Templeton Templeton	8 years 11 years	In the Templeton Church	76/1971	John Marshall, Father	June 10 1876	Rev De Berdt Hovell
5030	10 June 1876	William Edwards James Gilbert Mary Agnes Benley	William Edward James Gilbert Mary Agnes Denby 💍 1876/1020	Widower Widow	Carpenter [illegible]	31 38	Christchurch Christchurch	6 weeks 4 weeks	In the Registrars Office	76/967		June 10 1876	Registrar Marriages, J.W. Parkinson
5031	12 June 1876	Frank Jacobsen Annie Savage	Frank Jacobson Annie Savage 💍 1876/1910	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Nurse	29 24	Christchurch Christchurch	10 months 20 months	In the church of St Luke	76/1956		June 12 1876	Rev R. A. Lingard
5032	12 June 1876	James Bryant Hill Mary Elizabeth Bartram	James Bryant Hill Mary Elizabeth Bartram 💍 1876/1350	Bachelor Spinster	Engine-driver Schoolteacher	29 17	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 15 years	In the Church of St Michael	76/1346	David William Bartram, Father	June 12 1876	Rev H. J. Edwards
5033	13 June 1876	Christus Frederick Noel Blakiston Charity Connell	Augustus Frederick Noel Blakiston Charity Connell 💍 1876/910	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Service Officer [illegible]	47 36	Springfield Road Christchurch	24 years [illegible]	In St Luke's Church	76/1933		June 13 1876	Rev R. A. Lingard

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).