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 620

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 1877

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
4649	20 August 1877	Joseph Bernard Sheeth		Widower	Contractor	31	Christchurch	8 Years	In the Roman Catholic Church	77/2187		20 August 1877	Re L. Linaly
4650	20 August 1877	Edward Pargeter Frances Wallnutt		Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper	25 25	Christchurch Christchurch	4 Years 3 Months	In the Armside Church	77/2179		20 August 1877	Rev # Gleeson
4651	22 August 1877	William Theakston Mary Ann Othams	William Theakston Caroline Allen 💍 1877/2592	Bachelor Widow	Clerk	25 27	Christchurch Christchurch	8 Years 3 Years	In the house of Rev C Fraser	77/2598	Mary Ann Pye Mother	22 August 1877	Rev C Fraser
4652	25 August 1877	Samuel Edward Harford Story Caroline Allen		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Teacher	25 18	Co Recarton Christchurch	4 Months 18 Years	At the Registrars Office	77/1495		25 August 1877	Registrar of Marriages
4653	25 August 1877	Michael Rooney Elizabeth Ann Hartle	Michael John Craddock Elizabeth Ann Bryan 💍 1877/2979	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 22	Christchurch Armside	10 days 1 Year	In the Roman Catholic Church	77/2188		25 August 1877	Re L. Linaly
4654	27 August 1877	William Henry Williamson Ann Meehan	William Henry Williamson Annie Morgan 💍 1877/1862	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 24	Christchurch Christchurch	Small fee the Registrar's Office 10 days		77/1494		27 August 1877	Registrar of Marriages
4655	27 August 1877	Josiah Chandler Annie Morgan		Bachelor Spinster	Grocer Servant	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days Small fee the Christchurch	In the Jesteh Church	77/2599		27 August 1877	Rev C Fraser
4656	28 August 1877	Joseph Thomas Barrett Ellen Monday	Thomas William Josiah Chandler Ellen Monday 💍 1877/2593	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	10 Years 4 Months	In the Roman Catholic Church	77/2190		28 August 1877	Re L. Linaly
4657	28 August 1877	Charles Gosling Margaret Duffy	Charles Gosling Maria McDonald 💍 1877/2222	Widower Spinster	Farmer	33 24	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 10 Years	In the Roman Catholic Church	77/2189		28 August 1877	Re L. Linaly
4658	29 August 1877	Richard Joseph Offwood Maria Macdonald	Richard Joseph Offwood Harriet Martha Turvey 💍 1877/1858	Bachelor Spinster	Cabman	26 29	Christchurch Christchurch	22 Years 4 Years	In the Christchurch	77/1873		29 August 1877	Rev M. J. Habens
4659	30 August 1877	Joseph Smith Harriet Martha Turvey	Joseph Smith Amy Turvey 💍 1877/1857 Richard Joseph Offwood Harriet Martha Turvey 💍 1877/1858	Widower Spinster	Salesman Servant	38 23	Christchurch Christchurch	13 Years 3 Years	In the Christchurch	77/1872	Charles Turvey Father	30 August 1877	Rev M. J. Habens
	30 August 1877	Amy Turvey		Spinster	Servant	19	Christchurch	3 Years	In the Christchurch

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).