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 604

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 1877 Registrar [illegible]

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
4490	14 April 1877	William Hunter Garton Maria Whittington	William Hunter Garton Maria Whittington 💍 1877/1448	Bachelor Spinster	Currier	26 21	Woolston Woolston	15 months 12 years	St John's Church	77/1374		14 April 1877	Rev H C M Watson
4491	14 April 1877	Joseph Pearson Jane Steele	Joseph Pearson Jane Steele 💍 1877/2656	Bachelor Spinster	Warder	32 23	Addington Woolston	8 months 2 years	In the house of Mr Steele	77/2640		14 April 1877	Rev C Fraser
4492	16 April 1877	Ernest William Griffin Sarah Ann Charlotte Self	Ernest William Griffin Sarah Ann Charlotte Self 💍 1877/1115	Bachelor Spinster	Bottler	23 18	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 10 years	Office of Registrar	77/1036	Margaret Hulchins, mother	16 April 1877	Registrar of Marriages, M Parkerson
4493	16 April 1877	John Iraunell Agnes M'Haraith	John Brown Agnes Harris 💍 1877/111	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	25 24	Woolston Woolston	1 month 1 month	Wesleyan Church	77/1020		16 April 1877	Rev W Morley
4494	17 April 1877	James Thompson Hannah Riekerby	James Thompson Janet Cowie 💍 1877/583	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	24 22	West Melton Prebbleton	3 years 3 years	In the house of Mr Allen	77/2644		17 April 1877	Rev C Fraser
4495	18 April 1877	John Green Georgina Christina McElroy	John Dunn Georgina Christie McIlroy 💍 1877/1112	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 16	Lincoln Springston	14 years 12 years	Presbyterian Church	77/1033	John Dilworth, Father	18 April 1877	Rev C Fraser
4496	18 April 1877	Samuel Thompson Jane Edwards	Samuel Thompson Jane Edwards 💍 1877/3015	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	26 21	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 14 months	St Michael's Church	77/3054		18 April 1877	Rev R. S. Penny
4497	19 April 1877	George Gardiner Jane Simmons	George Gardiner Jane Simmons 💍 1877/1110	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	21 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 2 years	In the Primitive Methodist Chapel, Ashburton	77/130		19 April 1877	Rev B. J. Westbrooke
4498	19 April 1877	John McDougan Mary Shevlin	John M Swiggan Mary Sherlin 💍 1877/1406	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker Machinist	30 22	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 4 years	Catholic Church	77/356		19 April 1877	Rev J. P. Charyle
4499	20 April 1877	John Brown Annie Walker	John Brown Anne Walker 💍 1877/1094	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	23 20	Christchurch Christchurch	9 years 20 years	Methodist Chapel	77/1013	John Walker, Father	20 April 1877	Rev J Hodgson
4500	20 April 1877	Charles Edward Rawson Jessie Robertson	Charles Edward Stubbs Jessie Robertson 💍 1877/2657	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	27 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 17 years	In the house of Rev E Fraser	77/2641		20 April 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).