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 630

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
4079	8 May 1876	William Shackle Mary Evelyn Gordon	William Shackle Mary Evelyn Gordon 💍 1876/1641	Bachelor Spinster	Miner [illegible]	30 29	Christchurch Christchurch	2 months 2 years	In the house of Mr G. Gordon	76/1565	May 8	Rev C. Fraser, Pres
4080	8 May 1876	William Houghton Mary Ann Pope	William Houghton Mary Anne Pope 💍 1876/926	Widower Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	32 22	Christchurch Christchurch, Montreal Street	2 years 2 years	In the house of Mr. Pope	76/1925	May 8	Rev J. Berry, Wes
4081	8 May 1876	William Richard Flint Louisa Shaw	William Richard Flint Louisa Shaw 💍 1876/922	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	28 21	Knights Town Christchurch	7 years 1 year	In the house of Mr. Flint	76/1921	May 8	Rev E. Fraser, Wes
4082	8 May 1876	Joseph Henry Dearsley Marian Mcc[illegible]hutchison	Joseph Henry Dearsley Marian Mears Mitchell 💍 1876/925	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraph Clerk.	23 21	Christchurch St Albans, Durham Street	3 years 6 years	In the Durham Wesleyan church	76/1924	May 8	Rev J. Berry, Wes
4083	9 May 1876	Richard Auther Hopkins Julia Fitzgerald	Richard Northey Hopkins Julia Fitzgerald Strangman 💍 1876/907	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 25	Templeton Christchurch	1 year 10 years	In the church of St. Luke, Christchurch	76/1930	May 9	Rev Q. A. Lingard, CofE
4084	10 May 1876	Hugh Lee Caroline Broderick		Bachelor Widow	Laborer	31 32	Christchurch Christchurch	2 months 12 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	76/1949	May 10	Rev J. P. Chareyre, RC
4085	10 May 1876	Thomas Gorward Mary Courtains	Thomas Gorman Mary Curtaine 💍 1876/1026	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	30 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 months 3 months	In the Roman Catholic Church	76/1950	May 10	Rev J. P. Chareyre, RC
4086	11 May 1876	Francis Beard Paterson Ellen Sarah Paull	Francis Beard Porter Ellen Sarah Paull 💍 1876/1529	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Milliner	26 22	Christchurch Christchurch	4 months 16 months	In the church of St. John	76/1469	May 11	Rev H. C. M. Watson, CofE
4087	11 May 1876	Phillip Wisker Elizabeth Ann Mcc[illegible]	Philipp Wisker Elizabeth Ann Nickoles 💍 1876/927	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Servant	29 28	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 years	In the German church	76/1920	May 11	Rev L. Lohr, Lut
4088	12 May 1876	James Merritt Curtis Mary Fox	James Merritt Curtis Mary Fox 💍 1876/1530	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	28 21	Christchurch Christchurch	16 months 16 months	In the church of St John	76/1470	May 12	Rev H. C. M. Watson, CofE
4089	13 May 1876	Edmund Francis Waite Elizabeth Colley Dickens	Edward Francis Waite Elizabeth Dickens 💍 1876/900	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet-maker Servant	28 22	Christchurch Christchurch, Hereford Street	9 weeks 8 months	In the Baptist chapel	76/1944	May 13	Rev R. Morton

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).