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 618

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 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
3961	3 February 1876	Charles Kendall Bojie Mary Elizabeth Hodgkinson	Charles Kendall Bogie Huddleston Mary Elizabeth Newcombe Boddington 💍 1876/398	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager	38 31	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 5 days	In the Heathcote Valley Church	76/466		3 February 1876	Rev C. J. Merton
3962	5 February 1876	William Porter Charlotte Jeffries	William Porter Charlotte Sefton 💍 1876/1493	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer Servant	33 23	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 2 years	Christchurch	76/1531		5 February 1876	Rev C Fraser
3963	5 February 1876	Joseph Luxon Kate Ellis	Joseph Turner Kate Ellis 💍 1876/405	Widower Spinster	Carpenter Housekeeper	61 38	Christchurch Christchurch	17 years 9 years	In the house of R. W. Turner, Cranmer Square	76/483		5 February 1876	Rev W. Lee
3964	7 February 1876	Nicholas Wilson Sarah Jane McClinton		Bachelor Spinster	Joiner Servant	28 22	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 3 weeks	St John's Church, Christchurch	76/481		7 February 1876	Rev H. C. M. Watson
3965	8 February 1876	Robert Hewitt Hawkes Ina Marriot Ashton	Robert Hewitt Hawkins Dora Marriotto Ashton 💍 1876/765	Widower Spinster	Warehouseman	55 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 weeks 6 months	St Luke's Church, Christchurch	76/487		8 February 1876	Rev E. A. Lingard
3966	8 February 1876	William Clark Louise Strickland	William Clark Louisa Strickland 💍 1876/3262	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	27 24	Christchurch Christchurch	10 months 5 years	Scotch Church	76/1536		8 February 1876	Rev C Fraser
3967	9 February 1876	James Goodman Susannah Berry	James Goodman Susannah Berry 💍 1876/391	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Dressmaker	24 24	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 10 years	In the house of Mrs Ritchie, Armagh Street	76/469		9 February 1876	Rev J. Aldred
3968	9 February 1876	Paul Crump Mary Ann Leigh	Paul Crump Mary Ann Leigh 💍 1876/439	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 19	Springston Springston	10 years 5 years	In the Burnham	76/485	Zebulun Leigh, Father	9 February 1876	Rev H. Stocker
3969	10 February 1876	Walter John Lehern Elizabeth Ann Crocker		Bachelor Widow	Seaman Servant	27 30	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 3 days	St Luke's Church			10 February 1876	Rev E. A. Lingard
3970	10 February 1876	Thomas Sheehan Mary O'Grady	Thomas Sheehan Mary O'Grady 💍 1876/399	Widower Spinster	Labourer Servant	40 35	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years 3 years	Roman Catholic Church, Christchurch	76/497		10 February 1876	Rev J. P. Chareyre
3971	10 February 1876	Matthew Lumsden Susan Chapman		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	32 32	Christchurch Waltham	10 years 2 years	In the house of Rev C Fraser, Tuam Street			10 February 1876	Rev C. Fraser

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).