Intentions to Marry, 1877

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840389, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, April 16 2025

Page 595

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1877 Registrar JMarkerson

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
4408	5 February 1877	Alfred Thomas Palmer Mary Elizabeth Merry	Alfred Thomas Palmer Mary Elizabeth Mary 💍 1877/86	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 21	Christchurch Christchurch	6 weeks 21 Years	Avonside Church	77/400		5 February 1877	Rev. Rilst Elasson
4409	5 February 1877	Joseph Smith Sennie Thunter	Joseph Smith Jennie Hunter 💍 1877/456 Joseph Smith Amy Turvey 💍 1877/1857	Bachelor Spinster	Gasfitter Servant	36 25	Christchurch Christchurch	10 Years 1 Year	Hesleyan Chapel	77/362		5 February 1877	Rev. Ls. Morley
4410	6 February 1877	Edward Stafford Coster Agnes Cecil Henty	Edward Stafford Coster Agnes Cecil Henty 💍 1877/461	Bachelor Spinster	Stockowner	33 26	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 9 days	Opawa Church	77/364		6 February 1877	Rev. G.I. Cholmon delay
4411	7 February 1877	Joseph Dephoff Margaret Brannigan		Widower Widow	Book Keeper Housekeeper	34 23	Lincoln Christchurch	3 weeks 1 Year	Registrar's Office Christchurch			7 February 1877	Registrar of Marriages Markerson
4412	7 February 1877	James Wilson Harriet Aunie	James Wilson Jannet Munro 💍 1878/632 James Wilson Harriett Annie Wise Vennieur 💍 1877/480 James Wilson Sarah Hunter 💍 1877/2831 James Wilson Catherine Courtney 💍 1878/653 James Wilson Mary Willis 💍 1877/1116 Robert Wilson Harriet Marriot 💍 1877/1655 James Wilson Eliza Emily Watkins 💍 1877/574 James Wilson Mary Ann Stroud 💍 1877/1973	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner Servant	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	20 Years 2 years	Church Sturham	77/386		7 February 1877	Re. H. Morley
4413	12 February 1877	William Turner Beby Gale	William Turner Betsy Gale 💍 1877/1455	Bachelor Spinster	Labour Servant	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 Years	Church	77/405		12 February 1877	Re. C. Fraser
4414	14 February 1877	Frederick William Lichtfield Alice Jenetta Jerome	Frederick William Litchfield Alice Jenetta Jerome 💍 1877/742	Bachelor Widow	Merchant	26 25	Christchurch Christchurch	18 months 3 days	Christchurch	77/651		14 February 1877	Re W. I. Habens
4415	15 February 1877	Thomas Lewis Beecham Ellen Elise Burrows	Thomas Lewis Ellen Eliza Burrows 💍 1877/1474	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	38 19	Christchurch Reccarton	7 Years 17 Years	Christchurch	77/400	William Burrows Father	15 February 1877	R. C. Fraser
4416	15 February 1877	Robert Loakely Susan Holder	Robert Wakely Susan Older 💍 1877/481	Widower Spinster	Fellmonger Dressmaker	32 30	Woolston Addington	3 Years 2 Years	Church	77/389		15 February 1877	Re W. Morley
4417	15 February 1877	George Charles Bear Jessie Stitt	George Charles Vear Jessie Hitt 💍 1877/521	Bachelor Spinster	Cutler Dressmaker	28 21	Christchurch Christchurch	9 months 4 Years	Church	77/404		15 February 1877	Rev. Jr. Cm. Watson
4418	15 February 1877	James Burgh Georgina Soolan	James Burgh Long Georgina Conolly Doolan 💍 1877/753	Widower Spinster	Station Master Schoolmistress	50 30	Templeton Christchurch	2 Years 11 years	Church	77/652		16 February 1877	Re. D. I Habens

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).