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 633

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1877 Registrar Mankinson

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
4776	18 December 1877	Richard Walker Louisa Remwood	Richard Walker Louisa Henwood 💍 1877/2981	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	30 24	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 20 years	St Michael's Church	77/2992		18 December 1877	Rev. R. S. Penny
4777	18 December 1877	George Endon Mary Hepburn Wright	George Gordon Mary Hepburn Wright 💍 1877/2913	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 28	Christchurch Christchurch	4 months 5 years	St John's Church	77/2923		18 December 1877	Rev. H. C. M. Watson
4778	18 December 1877	Charles Ulrich Anna Galland	Carl Adalbant Ulrich Anna Stratheden Burnfield Galland 💍 1877/3003	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Teacher	36 26	Christchurch Christchurch	3 months 1 week	In the house of Mr Hepburn Buysland, Nelson	77/3005		18 December 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4779	19 December 1877	Frederick Hemming Sophia Amy March	Frederick Humm Sophia March 💍 1877/3134	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 18	Riccarton Riccarton	3 months 3 weeks	Methodist Chapel	77/2630	William March, Father	19 March 1877	Rev. H. R. Wilkinson
4780	21 December 1877	John Scrimgeour Joan Patton	John Scrimgeour Joan Patton 💍 1877/3002	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Housekeeper	24 25	Halswell Halswell	1 week 2 months	In the house of Mr Chasen	77/3004		21 December 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4781	21 December 1877	Edmond Fine Louisa Atkinson	Edmund Vine Louisa Atkinson 💍 1877/2982	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Servant	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	12 months 8 years	St Michael's Church	77/2993		21 December 1877	Rev. R. S. Penny
4782	22 December 1877	John Streeter Eliza Hallace	John Streeter Eliza Wallace 💍 1877/3005	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Housemaid	27 24	Tai Tapu Tai Tapu	10 years 3 years	In the house of Mr Chasen	77/3004		22 December 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4783	24 December 1877	George Heyde Annie Elizabeth Daylis	George Hyde Annie Elizabeth Bayliss 💍 1877/2983	Widower Spinster	Tailor Servant	30 21	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 1 year	St Michael's Church	77/2994		24 December 1877	Rev. R. S. Penny
4784	24 December 1877	Samuel Caunter Sarah Hulston	Samuel Caunter Sarah Hulston 💍 1877/3004	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 27	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 3 years	In the house	77/3006		24 December 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4785	24 December 1877	Frederick Thomas Harding [illegible]		Bachelor	Painter	24	Christchurch In the Registration Office	5 years		77/3016		24 December 1877	Registrar of Marriages
4786	24 December 1877	Thomas Rayner Harriet Parke	Elias Rayner Harriett Parke 💍 1877/2623	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Dressmaker	39 23	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 14 days	In the house	77/2631		24 December 1877	Rev. H. R. Wilkinson

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).