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 618

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
4627	28 July 1877	Philip Seibert Ellen Reilly	Philip Deibert Ellen Reilly 💍 1877/2239	Widower Widow	Farmer Servant	45 48	North Road Papanui	13 years 3 years	Lutheran Roman Catholic Church	77/2183		28 July 1877	Rev. L. Smidt
4628	30 July 1877	Charles O'Malley Sarah Corcoran	Charles O'Malley Sarah Corcosan 💍 1877/2217	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Servant	27 20	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 6 months	Lutheran Roman Catholic Church	77/2184	There is no person bearing authority	30 July 1877	Rev. L. Smidt
4629	30 July 1877	James Stanley Bruce Annie Louisa Wright	James Stanley Bruce Annie Louisa Wright 💍 1877/1841	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Engineer	36 19	Ashburton Lincoln	3 years 12 years	by the Rev. H. Stocker	77/1489	Richard Wright Father	30 July 1877	Rev. H. Stocker
4630	30 July 1877	Peter Harris Mary Preston	Peter Harris Mary Preston 💍 1877/2174	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 23	North Road North Road	18 years 18 years	in the Church of St Michael Christchurch	77/2141		30 July 1877	R. S. Penny
4631	31 July 1877	Henry Benny Jane Beaus Boyd	Henry Benny Jane Deans Boyd 💍 1877/1848	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 19	Lincoln Lincoln	6 months 17 years	Wesleyan Chapel	77/1804	Father	31 July 1877	R. S. A. Taylor
4632	3 August 1877	Angus James Card Mary Crar		Bachelor Spinster	Shipwright	40 35	Christchurch Christchurch	9 days 5 years	St Luke's Lyttleton	77/2095		3 August 1877	R. S. W. Stack
4633	4 August 1877	Charles Lot Sauntney Unless Ellen Sherwood		Bachelor Spinster	Platelayer	23 20	Templeton Templeton	2 years 5 years	in the Templeton Church	77/1982	Mary Irvine Mother	4 August 1877	Rev. de Berndt Hovell
4634	4 August 1877	Francis Eden Alice Strutter	Francis Eden Alice Streeter 💍 1877/1849	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 18	Tai Tapu Tai Tapu	2 years 13 years	in the Templeton Church	77/1805	James Strutter Father	4 August 1877	Rev. S. A. Taylor
4635	6 August 1877	Nelson In Senaghlin Jane Heily	Nelson McLenaghin Jane Neill 💍 1877/2611	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	25 18	Christchurch Christchurch	18 months 3 months	of Rev. C. Fraser	77/2593	William Heily Father	6 August 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4636	6 August 1877	Benjamin Lines Ann Blunk	Benjamin Lines Ann Blunt 💍 1877/2589	Widower Widow	Farmer	60 59	Woolston Lincoln Road	5 years 10 years	in Ann Street	77/2595		6 August 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4637	6 August 1877	Jesse Thomas Blakemore Mary Ann Parish	Jesse Thomas Blakemore Mary Ann Parish 💍 1877/1828	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 19	Templeton Templeton	4 years	Templeton Church	77/1483	Thomas Parish Father	6 August 1877	Rev. de B. Hovell

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).