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 632

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1877 Registrar M[illegible]Kesson

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
4765	12 December 1877	Frederick Leech Mary Sowersby	Frederick Trent Mary Sowersby 💍 1877/2909	Bachelor Spinster	Coffee Merchant	35 28	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 1 year	In St John Church	77/2920		12 December 1877	Rev St. C. Watson
4766	12 December 1877	James French Annie Felshaw Sowersby	James Trent Annie Falshan Sowersby 💍 1877/2910	Bachelor Spinster	Coffee Merchant	26 24	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 1 year	In St John Church	77/2921		12 December 1877	Rev H. C. Watson
4767	12 December 1877	William Hood Mary Jane Jones	William Hood Mary Jane Jones 💍 1877/2722	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 25	Christchurch Linacre	3 years 1 year	In St John Church	77/2912		12 December 1877	Rev B. J. Hallowes
4768	13 December 1877	Thomas Walker Jessie Carpy	Thomas Walker Jessie Gray 💍 1877/2632	Bachelor Spinster	Sealer Machinist	38 22	Christchurch Christchurch	14 months 15 months	In the Registrars Office	77/3014		13 December 1877	Registrar of Marriages, W. McKesson
4769	14 December 1877	John Kirby Catherine Reardon	John Kirby Catherine Reardon 💍 1877/27	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 26	Addington Addington	3 days 3 days	In the Roman Catholic Church	77/3038		14 December 1877	R. L. Inwood
4770	14 December 1877	William Henry Cotterell Margaret O'Connor	William H Cotterell Margaret O'Connor 💍 1877/3010	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 22	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 2 months	In the Roman Catholic Church	77/3040		14 December 1877	R. L. Inwood
4771	14 December 1877	William Sheehan Mary Lynch	William Sheehan Mary Quirk 💍 1877/3153	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 22	Addington Addington	3 days 3 days	In the Roman Catholic Church	77/3039		14 December 1877	R. L. Inwood
4772	15 December 1877	Alfred Cox Catherine Browning	Alfred Cox Catherine Browning 💍 1877/2633	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	27 16	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the Registrars Office	77/3015	Charles Browning, Father	15 December 1877	Registrar of Marriages, W. McKesson
4773	15 December 1877	Duncan McMillan Eliza Cunningham	Duncan Macmillan Ann Eliza Cunningham McPherson 💍 1877/2992	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 24	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 4 days	In the house	77/3002		15 December 1877	Rev C. Fraser
4774	15 December 1877	John Frederick Russell Swatdine Sarah Baxter	John Frederick Russell Gwatkin Sarah Baxter 💍 1877/2584	Bachelor Spinster	Pattern Maker	24 25	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 14 years	In the house	77/2566		15 December 1877	Rev J. Haskell
4775	15 December 1877	Frederick Stephens Margaret Boghan	Frederick Stephens Margaret Vogan 💍 1877/3000	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 18	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 1 year	Lieu Street	77/3003		15 December 1877	Rev C. Fraser

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).