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 596

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 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
4419	19 February 1877	John Keenan Emily Dean	John Keenan Emily Dean 💍 1877/789	Widower Spinster	Labourer Servant	30 29	Christchurch Opawa	3 days 2 years	St Michael Church	77/684		19 February 1877	Rev. R. S. Penney
4420	19 February 1877	John Henry Donovan Alice Hawkins	John Henry Donovan Alice Hankins 💍 1877/1451	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	25 24	Christchurch Christchurch	10 months 20 years	Lutheran Church	77/1401		19 February 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4421	20 February 1877	James Sullivan Agnes McCullough	James Sullivan Agnes McCullough 💍 1877/1458	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Servant	38 26	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 6 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	77/1408		20 February 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4422	21 February 1877	William Payne Rebecca Watson	William Payne Rebecca Watson 💍 1877/1463	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	22 23	Prebbleton Riccarton	2 years 23 years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	77/1412		21 February 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4423	21 February 1877	George Simpson Elizabeth Corken	George Simpson Elizabeth Corkrey 💍 1877/1453	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Servant	38 28	Christchurch Christchurch	12 years 5 years	In the Scotch Church	77/1403		21 February 1877	Rev. R. A. Lingard
4424	22 February 1877	George Ashworth Fanny Bowden	George Ashworth Fanny Bowden 💍 1877/87	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Domestic	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	13 years 5 weeks	In St. Andrews Church	77/403		22 February 1877	Rev. R. A. Lingard
4425	24 February 1877	Thomas Reed Turner Elizabeth Martha Bayley	Thomas Reid Turnor Elizabeth Martha Bayley 💍 1877/522	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	29 25	Christchurch Christchurch	6 months 3 weeks	In the Wesleyan Church	77/364		24 February 1877	Rev. R. W. Maley
4426	24 February 1877	Albert Corrick Sarah Alice Calvert	Albert Corrick Sarah Alice Calvert 💍 1877/458	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	28 23	Christchurch Christchurch	13 years 16 years	Durham Street	77/409		24 February 1877	Rev. H. C. M. Watson
4427	24 February 1877	Alexander Keane Selina South	Alexander Neare Selina South 💍 1877/523	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 28	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 2 years	In St. Andrews Church	77/1402	Margaret Taylor, Mother	26 February 1877	Rev. C. Fraser
4428	26 February 1877	William McAllen Sarah Ellen Yates	William Davidson Sarah Ellen Yates 💍 1877/1452	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	36 20	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 4 years	Tram Street			26 February 1877	Rev. R. J. Bunshe
4429	26 February 1877	Joseph Ford Julia Bourke	Joseph Ford Julia Bourk 💍 1877/492	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer Servant	23 23	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 1 year	In the house of Mr. Ford	77/397		26 February 1877	Rev. R. J. Bunshe

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).