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 629

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

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
4732	07 October 1877	James Connolly Catherine Brown	James Connolly Catherine Brown 💍 1877/3148	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Servant	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 2 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	77/9034		10 November 1877	R.L. King
4733	10 October 1877	James Spencer [illegible]		Bachelor [illegible]	Carpenter [illegible]	24 [illegible]	Christchurch [illegible]	2 days [illegible]	Do	77/2420		10 November 1877	R.M.A. Price
4734	12 October 1877	George Bradley Margaret Wallace	George Bradley Elizabeth Stockdill 💍 1877/2572	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	35 21	Christchurch Christchurch	5 weeks 4 days	Do	77/2518		12 November 1877	R.W.I. Haben
4735	12 October 1877	John Somers Mary McKenna	John Somers Mary M Kenna 💍 1877/3149	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	22 18	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 4 days	In the Roman Catholic Church	77/3035		12 November 1877	R.L. King
4736	12 October 1877	Daniel Richardson Isabella Reveridge	Daniel Richardson Isabella Beveridge 💍 1877/2603	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 4 days	In the Registrar's Office	77/2608		12 November 1877	Registrar of Marriages
4737	12 October 1877	Charles James Champion Frances Mary Stringer	Charles James Champion Frances Mary Stringer 💍 1877/2636	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 24	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 1 year	In the Merivale Church	77/2618		12 November 1877	R.J. Hanck
4738	14 October 1877	David Quain Eliza Brown	Walter Tom Dutton Eliza Brown 💍 1877/2904	Bachelor Spinster	Mechanic	25 22	Christchurch Christchurch	5 months 4 months	In the Home	77/2952		14 November 1877	R. Cream
4739	14 October 1877	Henry Elms Elizabeth Allen	Henry Exon Elizabeth Allen 💍 1877/2571	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinetmaker	23 23	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 23 years	In the Home	77/2544		14 November 1877	R. Cream
4740	20 October 1877	John Alfred Watts Jane Frestbury	John Alfred Watts Jane Westbury 💍 1877/2604	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	24 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 months 3 months	In the Registrar's Office	77/2609		20 November 1877	Registrar of Marriages
4741	22 October 1877	Henry Armstrong Elizabeth Higgins	Henry Armstrong Elizabeth Higgins 💍 1877/2605	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	35 29	Christchurch Christchurch	4 months 4 months	In the Registrar's Office	77/2610		22 November 1877	Registrar of Marriages
4742	24 October 1877	William Barnett Sarah Ann Sedgwick	William Barnett Sarah Annie Duckworth 💍 1877/2911 William Thomas Barnett Sarah Annie Wright 💍 1877/1137 William Barnett Mary Hughes 💍 1878/117	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	20 19	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 17 years	In the Church	77/2922	James Barnett Father	24 November 1877	R.W.I. Haben

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).