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 615

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 1877 Registrar Matterson

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
4594	02 July 1877	Elvina Edith Minniethunk		Spinster		24	Addington	2 Years In St Lukes Church	Christchurch	77/2091	02 July 1877	Rev. E. A. Lingard
4595	02 July 1877	Benjamin King Hadsbook Jane Hamilton Kerr		Bachelor Spinster	Joiner Accountant	25 28	Addington Christchurch	1 Year Christchurch 3 Years In the Town of Christchurch	Rev. S. Christie	77/2069	02 July 1877	Rev. S. Christie
4596	03 July 1877	William Thomas Jane Margaret Guild Mccullagh	William Thomas Jane Elizabeth Daniels 💍 1877/2022	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	38 24	Christchurch Christchurch	13 Years In the Church of St John 10 months Christchurch	Christchurch	77/1984	03 July 1877	Rev. H. C. M. Green
4597	03 July 1877	George Clarkson Elizabeth Daniel	George Robertson Elizabeth Watson 💍 1878/160 George Simpson Elizabeth Corkrey 💍 1877/1453 George Stark Elizabeth Gilbert 💍 1878/144 George Hartley Elizabeth Perrier 💍 1877/3130	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 27	Christchurch Christchurch	14 months In the Roman Catholic 2 Years Christchurch	Christchurch	77/1981	03 July 1877	Rev. L. Ginaty
4598	04 July 1877	Robert Pope Sarah McKenna		Bachelor Spinster	Joiner Servant	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	12 Years In the Methodist Chapel 15 months Christchurch Christchurch	Christchurch		04 July 1877	Rev. I. Hodgson
4599	04 July 1877	John Frederick Staples Jane Beattie	Robert Page Jane Beattie 💍 1878/577	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Dressmaker	27 21	Christchurch Addington	1 week In the Baptist Chapel 21 Years Addington	Christchurch	77/1994	05 July 1877	Rev. E. Salter
4600	05 July 1877	John Milne Elizabeth Keraris	John Milne Jemima Fraser 💍 1878/692	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner Servant	27 25	Woolston Christchurch	2 Years In the Town of Mrs. McKinley 6 weeks Hereford Street	Christchurch	77/2583	05 July 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4601	06 July 1877	Margaret McKinley Caroline Glastonbury		Spinster Spinster	Servant Servant	21 37	Christchurch Christchurch	2 months Brougham Road 3 Years In the Town of Mr. Barnett	Christchurch	77/1811	06 July 1877	Rev. H. Helena
4602	06 July 1877	Isabel Reinfell George Miller		Bachelor Bachelor	Gardener Farmer	43 33	Christchurch Papanui	1 Year Ferry Road 23 Years In the Town of Rev. C. Fraser	Christchurch	77/2586	07 July 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4603	07 July 1877	James Robertson Annie Robertson	James Robertson Clara Foulkes 💍 1877/482	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	34 21	Christchurch Papanui	3 months In the Scotch Church 2 Years Transit	Christchurch	77/2584	07 July 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4604	07 July 1877	Melbourne Dee Eliza Pascoe		Bachelor Spinster	Saddler Servant	29 30	Christchurch Christchurch	2 days In the Town of Westin 2 Years Queen Street	Christchurch	77/1990	07 July 1877	Rev. W. Hipley
		Annie Victoria Litchfield		Spinster		21	Christchurch	6 weeks Hereford 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).