Intentions to Marry, 1878

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840390, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, March 5 2025

Page 0685

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1898

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
4819	18 January 1898	William Bowlen Susan McCallawa	William Bowlen Susan McCullum 💍 1878/495	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	36 26	Christchurch Christchurch	14 Years 6 months	Roman Catholic Church	78/476		18 January 1898	Rev. R. S. [illegible]
4820	18 January 1898	Henry George Young Margaret Lucy Cave	Henry George Gould Margaret Lucy Cane 💍 1878/531	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk in Holy orders	27 24	Christchurch Woodend	3 days Woodend	St Michaels Church	78/488		18 January 1898	Rev. R. S. Penny
4821	19 January 1898	James Munro Sophia Bean	James Munro Sophia Dean 💍 1878/517	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	4 Years In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	78/499		19 January 1898	Rev. C. Fraser
4822	19 January 1898	Robert Lodder Sophia Bean		Bachelor [illegible]	Farmer [illegible]	24 [illegible]	Christchurch Lincoln Street	14 days In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	78/502		19 January 1898	Rev. C. Fraser
4823	21 January 1898	Thomas Morgan Mary Ann Davies	Thomas Morgan Mary Ann Davies 💍 1878/521	Bachelor Spinster	[illegible]	23 22	Christchurch Waltham Terrace	1 week 3 months	In the house of Rev. Macdonald	78/503		21 January 1898	Rev. C. Fraser
4824	22 January 1898	George Thomas Isabella Macdonald	George Thomas Smart Isabella McDonald 💍 1878/522	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	24 22	Christchurch Lincoln Street	4 days 3 months	St Michaels Church	78/489	Thomas Morris, Father	22 January 1898	Rev. R. S. Penny
4825	22 January 1898	George Morrison Annie Harris	George Morrison Fanny Novis 💍 1878/532	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 22	Christchurch Aldred Street	3 days Cust	Christchurch	[illegible]		22 January 1898	Registrar of Marriages, J. W. A. Marchant
4826	22 January 1898	Henry John Elizabeth Greenhead	Henry John Winchester Elizabeth Greenhead 💍 1878/585	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	24 22	Christchurch Manchester	11 Years Christchurch	Registrars Office	78/544		22 January 1898	Rev. W. A. Pascoe
4827	22 January 1898	Laurence Vivian Mary Little	Lawrence Vivian Desborough Mary Ann Little 💍 1878/81	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	34 26	Christchurch Desborough	5 Years 3 days	Christchurch	78/567		22 January 1898	Rev. W. J. Habens
4828	24 January 1898	Richard Edison Beckett Martha Faulkner	Richard Edward Beckett Martha Falkner 💍 1878/475	Bachelor Spinster	Bookbinder Servant	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	Christchurch 10 Years	Congregational Church	78/456		24 January 1898	Rev. J. B. [illegible]
4829	24 January 1898	Edgar Herbert Lovatt Clara Harriet Fisher	Edgar Herbert Wyatt Clara Harriet Fisher 💍 1878/547	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk in Holy orders	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Years 2 Years	Corner Road	78/529		24 January 1898	[illegible]

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).