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 599

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1877 Registrar J. Markerson

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
4452	12 March 1877	James Robertson Clara Foulkes	James Robertson Clara Foulkes 💍 1877/482	Bachelor Spinster	Driver Servant	26 22	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 7 years	In the house of Capr. Alexander	77/388		12 March 1877	Rev. W. Morley
4453	13 March 1877	Thomas Squires [illegible] Tucker		Bachelor [illegible]	Painter	24	St. Albans St. Albans	6 months 6 months	In the house of Mr. Drummond	77/390		13 March 1877	Rev. W. Morley
4454	13 March 1877	David Souter Mary Ann Clarke	Thomas Squires Tucker Mary Ann Clarke 💍 1877/484	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 25	Christchurch St. Albans	3 years 6 months	In the Avonside	77/401		13 March 1877	Rev. St. Blasson
4455	14 March 1877	John Ferguson Sarah Ann Styles	John Wilson Sarah Ann Dowsett 💍 1877/101	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	40 22	Lincoln Road Christchurch	3 years 22 years	Church	77/399		14 March 1877	Rev. I. Elmslie
4456	16 March 1877	Henry Tapp Sarah Ferguson	George Ferguson Sarah Ferguson 💍 1877/494	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	30 40	Christchurch Lincoln Road	4 years 10 months	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	77/418		16 March 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4457	16 March 1877	John William Stiles Helen Maria Cunningham		Bachelor Spinster	Coachdriver Servant	22 30	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 4 years	Michael Church	77/686	Michael Craddock, Father	16 March 1877	Rev. E. S. Penny
4458	16 March 1877	Thomas Lubman Annie Laura Craddock		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	40 19	Papauni Christchurch	4 years 16 years	In the Addinghton	77/423		16 March 1877	Rev. St. Q. East
4459	16 March 1877	Thomas Motley Brook Margaret Ward	Thomas Tulman Margaret Ward 💍 1877/88	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	28 24	Papauni Papauni	10 days 5 years	Church	77/1014		16 March 1877	Rev. F. L. Brittan
4460	17 March 1877	John Charles Howard Mary Hudson		Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 24	Christchurch Papauni	2 months 6 years	St. John's Church	77/410	Alfred George Naumann, Father	17 March 1877	Rev. C. Mc. Watson
4461	19 March 1877	Thomas Simpson Alice Mary Stannard	Thomas Simpson Ellen Brown 💍 1877/1494	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 19	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 2 months	In the Vestry Ashburton	77/420		19 March 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4462	20 March 1877	John Dalzell Ellen Brown		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 21	Christchurch Rolleston	3 days 5 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	77/419		20 March 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4463		Jessie Clark		Spinster		33	Christchurch	3 days	Luan Street

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).