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 625

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1877 Registrar J. Walkinson

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
4688	01 October 1877	Herbert Arthur Cuttuy Rhoda Jane Stamford	Herbert Arthur Cutting Rhoda Jane Stamford 💍 1877/2598	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 20	Woolston Woolston	1 year 6 years	Register Office	77/8868	William Stamford, Father	01 October 1877	Registrar of Marriages, Walkinson
4689	01 October 1877	William Pearson Emma Maria Hansen	William Parkerson Emma Maria Mount Newman 💍 1877/3053	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	48 31	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 2 years	In the Altar	77/2005		01 October 1877	Rev. St. B. Cocks
4690	01 October 1877	David Hutchison Kate Macmillan	David Hutchison Kate Maguillan 💍 1877/2600	Widower Widow	Carpenter Housekeeper	37 31	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 2 years	In the Register Office	77/2568		01 October 1877	Registrar of Marriages, Walkinson
4691	01 October 1877	Jacob Leshke Elizabeth Fairley	Jacob Leshke Elizabeth Fairley 💍 1877/2586	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor	24 22	Christchurch Christchurch	14 days 2 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	77/2606		02 October 1877	Rev. R. C. Fraser
4692	02 October 1877	Charles Beard Mary Griffiths	Charles Beard Mary Griffiths 💍 1877/2601	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Servant	29 39	Waltham Waltham	6 months 6 months	In the Register Office	77/2957		05 October 1877	Registrar of Marriages, Walkinson
4693	03 October 1877	Benjamin Plason Silbey Catherine Glasper	Benjamin Pherson Ekberg Catherine Glasgow 💍 1877/2970	Bachelor Spinster	Mechanic Milliner	26 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 3 years	In the Congregational Church	77/3030		03 October 1877	Rev. R. J. Statham
4694	03 October 1877	Richard Fitzgerald Maria Groves	Richard Fitzgerald Maria Groves 💍 1877/3143	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 25	Christchurch Christchurch	18 months 3 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	77/2569		03 October 1877	Rev. R. C. Fraser
4695	03 October 1877	John Lamb Annie Steele	John Lamb Annie Steele 💍 1877/2587	Widower Spinster	Carter	51 36	Opawa Christchurch	12 years 4 years	In the Residence of Rev. C. Fraser	77/2540		05 October 1877	Rev. R. C. Fraser
4696	05 October 1877	Frank Stall Annie McPherson	Frank Hall Annie McPherson 💍 1877/2564	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	34 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 3 months	In the Residence of Rev. C. Fraser	77/3001		05 October 1877	Rev. R. C. Fraser
4697	05 October 1877	John Strand Mary Ann Turner	John Hand Mary Ann Turner 💍 1877/2991	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	39 28	Lincoln Road Lincoln Road	3 months 3 years	In the Residence of Rev. C. Fraser	77/2542		08 October 1877	Rev. R. C. Fraser
4698	08 October 1877	Gilbert McLean Sarah Ann Twigell	Gilbert McLean Sarah Ann Wiggell 💍 1877/2566	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	25 23	Rolleston Christchurch	3 months 3 years	In the Residence of Rev. C. Fraser			[illegible] October 1877	Rev. R. C. Fraser

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).