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 634

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1877 Registrar J.M. Matheson

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
4787	26 December 1877	Alexander Nicol Eliza Pannett	Alexander Nicoll Eliza Pannett 💍 1877/2585	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 31	Lincoln Lincoln	3 days 10 years	In the house Courteney of Mr Pannett	77/2564		26 December 1877	Rev. I.W. Lawle
4788	26 December 1877	Robert Horrie		Bachelor	Cabinetmaker	25	Christchurch	8 months	In the [illegible] Church	77/555	Elijah Round, Father	26 December 1877	Rev. S.I. Cholmondeley
4789	26 December 1877	John Brawley Maria Round	John Baker Maria Bowyer 💍 1878/94	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	32 17	Christchurch Waltham	11 years 7 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	77/3008		26 December 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4790	27 December 1877	Job Lilley Mary Ann Hampton	John Bramley Mary Ann Hampton 💍 1877/3006	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	23 27	Courtenay Christchurch	18 years 2 years	In the Registration Office	77/2617	[illegible] having authority thousand	27 December 1877	Registrar of Marriages, J.M. Matheson
4791	27 December 1877	Antonio Brandon Rosina Rachel Alley	Antonio Brandon Lydia Shipley 💍 1877/2621	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	45 18	Christchurch Courtenay	2 years 3 years	In the house of Mr James Leefe	77/2628		27 December 1877	Rev. C. Dallas
4792	27 December 1877	David Cockrane Lydia Shipley	Antonio Brandon Lydia Shipley 💍 1877/2621	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Servant	30 32	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 15 months	Through Conference Street	77/4495		27 December 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4793	27 December 1877	William Henderson Mary Furze	William Henderson Mary Catherine Devine 💍 1878/55	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	21 24	Christchurch Christchurch	15 years 3 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	77/3009		27 December 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4794	31 December 1877	Joseph Fletcher Emily Mazey		Bachelor Spinster	Fisherman Dressmaker	29 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 10 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	77/3010		31 December 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4795	31 December 1877	George Samuel Taylor Fanny Eberne	Joseph Fletcher Fanny Eberne 💍 1877/3008	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	28 23	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 3 days	[illegible] Street	78/570		31 December 1877	Rev. H.J. East
4796	31 December 1877	Patrick Boyle Mary Ann Gates	George Samuel Taylor Mary Ann Gates 💍 1878/537	Bachelor Spinster	Physician Servant	29 19	Christchurch Addinghton	5 years 3 years	Catholic Church	78/540	Gates, Father	31 December 1877	Rev. I.C. Cherrier
	31 December 1877	Estelle Josephine Hombrook		Spinster		19	Opawa	19 years	Shands Track		Alfred Hombrook, Father	31 December 1877

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).