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 611

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 1877 Registrar JMaulkerson

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
4567	14 June 1877	Edward Champion Annie Parr	Edward Champion Annie Farr 💍 1877/1833	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer [illegible]	34 33	Springston Springston	1 year 1 year	In the Springston Church	77/1188		14 June 1877	Rev H. Stocker
4568	16 June 1877	James Upton Sally Ede	James Upton Sally Ede 💍 1877/1149	Widower Spinster	Brickmaker [illegible]	42 34	Waltham Waltham	2 months 2 years	Registrar's office Christchurch	77/1046		16 June 1877	Registry of Marriage WMaulkerson
4569	16 June 1877	Charles Ramble Margaret McPhee	Charles Ramble Margaret McPhie 💍 1877/2652	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	32 32	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 6 weeks	In the house of Rev. Cheer	77/2659		16 July 1877	R. Cheer
4570	16 June 1877	Frederick Thomas Jessie Byron		Bachelor Spinster	Baker [illegible]	26 16	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 5 days	In the house of Rev. Cheer	77/2658	Brown, Father	16 June 1877	R. Cheer
4571	18 June 1877	William Rountree Eliza Somerville	William Rountree Eliza Somerville 💍 1877/1099	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher [illegible]	25 23	St. Albans Phillipstown	12 years 3 years	In the Church	77/1018		18 June 1877	R. Flack
4572	18 June 1877	John Greer [illegible]		Widower [illegible]	Tailor [illegible]	46 [illegible]	Christchurch [illegible]	1 year [illegible]	Registrar's office Christchurch	77/1047		18 June 1877	Registry of Marriage WMaulkerson
4573	18 June 1877	Harries Horton Caroline Charlotte		Spinster Spinster	Dressmaker Servant	42 20	Christchurch Christchurch	9 months 20 years	In the house of R. W. Purdy	77/1028	Charlotte, Mother	18 June 1877	R. W. Purdy
4574	19 June 1877	Alexander Wood Thomasine Pope Beer		Bachelor Bachelor	Plasterer Bootmaker	24 45	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 years	This to Montreal Street			19 June 1877	Rev. Jt. Glaum
4575	19 June 1877	Stephen D. Mutta Margaret Ewing	Stephen Vivian Whitta Margaret Ewing 💍 1877/1151	Bachelor Spinster	[illegible] Servant	25 25	Christchurch Christchurch	15 years 3 years	Registrar's office Christchurch	77/1048		19 June 1877	Registry of Marriage WMaulkerson
4576	20 June 1877	William Trevor Russell [illegible]		Bachelor [illegible]	Farmer [illegible]	42 [illegible]	Christchurch [illegible]	6 months [illegible]	Michael Church	77/2139		20 June 1877	Rev. E. G. Penny
4577	21 June 1877	Henry Fox Elizabeth Newlands	Henry Fox Elizabeth Nankivell 💍 1877/1431	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Servant	28 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 3 years	In the Opera Church	77/1981		21 June 1877	R. S. J. Cholmondeley

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).