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 628

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
4057	April 24	Daniel Brick Margaret O'Grady	Daniel Brick Margaret O'Grady 💍 1876/920	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 23	Greendale Christchurch	1 year 5 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	76/942		April 24	Rev J. P. Chareyre
4058	April 24	George Berry Agnes Johnston	George Berry Agnes Johnston 💍 1876/3249	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 24	Malvern Malvern	9 years 4 1/2 years	In the House, Christchurch	76/1563		April 24	Rev C. Fraser
4059	April 24	Thomas Black Jane Williams	Thomas Black Eleanor Louise Braid 💍 1876/1429	Bachelor Spinster	Surgeon Servant	31 26	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 1 year	In the Church of St Luke, Christchurch			April 24	Rev. E. A. Lingard
4060	April 26	James Cole Catherine Hamilton	James Coll Catherine Hamilton 💍 1876/1024	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	34 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the Roman Catholic Church, Christchurch	76/948		April 26	Rev J. P. Chareyre
4061	April 26	Hugh Manson Emma Small	Hugh Manson Emma Smale 💍 1876/1014	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 18	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 months	In the Registrar's Office, Christchurch	76/962	Mary Small, mother	April 26	W. Parkerson
4062	April 27	James William Mary Jane Luke	James William Kibblewhite Mary Jane Luke 💍 1876/1552	Bachelor Spinster	Stoker Servant	31 23	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 2 years	In the Church of St. Lukes, Christchurch	76/1468		April 27	Rev H. C. M. Watson
4063	May 1	Caleb Tucker Jane Jones	Caleb Tucker Jane Jones 💍 1876/1332	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	23 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 6 years	In the Church, Dunsandel	76/1343	No person having authority	May 1	Rev H. J. Edwards
4064	May 1	Alfred Rolton Eliza Ann Mairs	Alfred Rolton Eliza Ann Nairns 💍 1876/3266	Bachelor Spinster	Sailmaker Servant	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 months 15 years	In the House of Mr. Mairs, Caledonian Road	76/1559		May 1	Rev C. Fraser
4065	May 1	John Cole Mary Ann Blunt	John Cole Mary Ann Blunt 💍 1876/1639	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Dressmaker	34 26	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 4 years	In the House of Rev C. Fraser, Tuam Street	76/1562		May 1	Rev C. Fraser
4066	May 1	Stephen England Emily Louisa Moore	Stephen England Gillingham Emily Louisa Moore 💍 1876/905	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 19	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 19 years	In the Church, Timaru	76/928	Augustus Moore, father	May 1	Rev E. A. Lingard
4067	May 1	James Pottinger Lucy Marion Moore	James Pottinger Drake Lucy Marion Moore 💍 1876/906	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	27 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 1/2 years 20 years	In the Church of St. Luke	76/929	Augustus Moore, father	May 1	Rev E. 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).