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 597

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1877 Registrar J.M.Parkerson

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
4430	26 February 1877	Charles Millett Caroline Rich	Charles Willett Caroline Rich 💍 1877/488	Bachelor Widow	Labour	38 37	Waltham Waltham	18 months 1 year	In the house of Rev. S. Macfarlane	77/894		26 February 1877	Rev. S. Macfarlane
4431	27 February 1877	William Cassidy Alice Profitt	William Cassidy Alice Profitt 💍 1877/507	Bachelor Spinster	Labour Servant	24 18	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 6 weeks	In the Registrar's Office Ashburton, there is no person having authority to consent	77/415		27 February 1877	Registrar of Marriages
4432	27 February 1877	Charles Jackson Emma Downey	Charles Jackson Emma Downey 💍 1877/1454	Bachelor Spinster	Labour	20 17	Riccarton Halswell	20 years 19 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	77/1404	Charlotte Jackson, mother; Michael Downey, father	27 February 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4433	28 February 1877	John Frederick Stanley Hannah Maria Mellany	John Frederick Stanley Hannah Maria Mullany 💍 1877/496	Bachelor Spinster	Coachbuilder Servant	28 23	Christchurch Christchurch	18 years 6 years	Catholic Church	77/349		28 February 1877	Rev. J.P. Chareyre
4434	01 March 1877	Samuel Lacey Elizabeth Obren	Samuel Lacey Elizabeth Obren 💍 1877/1459	Bachelor Spinster	Mason Servant	22 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 2 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	77/1409		01 March 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4435	02 March 1877	John Ferguson Lily Harris	John Ferguson Lily Harris 💍 1877/493	has been divorced Spinster	Cattle dealer	41 22	Lincoln Road Christchurch	3 years 3 days	In the Presbyterian Church	77/398		02 March 1877	Rev. I. Elmslie
4436	02 March 1877	William Morgan Ann Jane Might	William Morgan Anne Jane Wright 💍 1877/1464	Bachelor Spinster	Labour Servant	25 24	Papanui Papanui	1 year 1 year	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	77/1413		02 March 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4437	03 March 1877	Albert Bishop Catherine Cunningham	Albert Bishop Catherine Cunningham 💍 1877/498	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	35 24	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 9 years	Catholic Church	77/381		03 March 1877	Rev. J.P. Chareyre
4438	05 March 1877	Charles Mitchell Margaret Harris	James Mitchell Margaret Paton Dampster 💍 1877/1170	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	28 30	Templeton Templeton	4 years 2 weeks	In the Templeton	77/343		05 March 1877	Rev. de Berdt Hovell
4439	05 March 1877	William Brown Mary Steward	William Brown Mary Stewart 💍 1877/1460 William Brown Fanny Laura Lane 💍 1877/110	Bachelor Spinster	Labour Servant	24 21	Melbourne Melbourne	3 days 3 days	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	77/1410		05 March 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4440	05 March 1877	Paul Pearson Elizabeth Boylan	Paul Pearson Elizabeth Boyland 💍 1877/500	Bachelor Spinster	Sailmaker Servant	25 21	Christchurch St Albans	2 years 2 weeks	In the Roman Catholic Church	77/383		05 March 1877	Rev. J.P. Chareyre

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 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).