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 598

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 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
4441	05 March 1877	John Russell Hester Robinson	John Russel Esther Robinson 💍 1877/1467	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	18 months 2 months	Scotch Church	77/1416		05 March 1877	R. C. Fraser
4442	06 March 1877	George Alloway Sarah Ann Manns	George Alloway Sarah Ann Manns 💍 1877/1462	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	Residence in Durham Street	77/1411		06 March 1877	R. C. Fraser
4443	06 March 1877	Edgar George Williams Catherine Fay	Edgar George Williams Catherine Hay 💍 1877/497	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 4 days	Catholic Church	77/380		06 March 1877	R. S. P. O'Hareyre
4444	07 March 1877	Norman McLeod Thrina Munro	Norman McLeod Hughina Munro 💍 1877/1466	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	30 24	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 1 week	Residence in Durham Street	77/1415		07 March 1877	R. C. Fraser
4445	08 March 1877	John Beasley Mary Weft	John Beasley Mary Webb 💍 1877/1465	Widower Widow	Labourer Laundress	42 36	Christchurch Christchurch	4 months 2 years	Residence in Durham Street	77/1414		08 March 1877	R. C. Fraser
4446	09 March 1877	Nicholas Tramps Edith Murphy	Nicholas Columbus Edith Murphy 💍 1877/499	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	29 25	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 3 days	Catholic Church	77/382		09 March 1877	R. S. P. O'Hareyre
4447	09 March 1877	Charles Turner Leah Harcourt	Charles Turner Leah Harcourt 💍 1877/514	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	35 26	Christchurch Christchurch	6 days 3 years	St. Luke's, Malvern	77/404		09 March 1877	R. A. Lingard
4448	10 March 1877	James Alfred Fountain Julia Mary Roskruge	James A Fountaine Julia Mary Roskrugh 💍 1877/463	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 28	Pebbleton Stalswell	2 weeks 7 years	Church	77/369		10 March 1877	Re. de Berdt Hovell
4449	10 March 1877	Peter Ellis Fanny Hellewell	Peter Ellis Fanny Hellewell 💍 1877/768	Bachelor Spinster	Pattern maker	26 21	Addington Lincoln Road	5 years 6 years	St. Michael	77/685		10 March 1877	Re. E. S. Penny
4450	12 March 1877	Peter Bryson Elizabeth Wilson	Peter Bryson Elizabeth Wilson 💍 1877/1475	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 years	Residence in Durham Street	77/1419		12 March 1877	R. C. Fraser
4451	12 March 1877	William Johnston Ada Mary Hellyer	William Douglas Johnston Ada Mary Hellyer 💍 1877/525	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Servant	26 18	Christchurch St. Albans	5 months 15 months	Church	77/1411	There is a person having authority to consent	12 March 1877	Re. H. C. M. Watson

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).