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 689

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1878

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
4863	26 February 1878	Richard Duignan Mary Ridley	Richard Duignan Annie Mary Ridley 💍 1878/504	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Servant	37 33	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 7 years	In the Roman Catholic Church, Wellington	78/482		26 February 1878	Rev. L. Ginaty
4864	27 February 1878	Robert Inskeep Hannah Long	Robert Myhill Hannah Long 💍 1878/59	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Servant	32 37	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 5 years	Baptist Chapel, Hereford Street	78/560		27 February 1878	Rev. C. Dallaston
4865	27 February 1878	John Riddell Charlotte Adams	[No matching marriage registration has been located]	Bachelor Widow	Joiner	42 40	Christchurch Christchurch	9 years 1 year	In the Registrars Office, Christchurch			27 February 1878	Registrar of Marriages, J.W.A. Marchant
4866	27 February 1878	Thomas Griffies Mary O'Brien	Thomas Griffin Mary O'Brien 💍 1878/502	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 23	Christchurch Christchurch	14 days 3 days	In the Roman Catholic Church	78/482		27 February 1878	Rev. L. Ginaty
4867	27 February 1878	Stephen Miles Nora Revie	Stephen Mills Nora Nevin 💍 1878/500	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	26 25	Christchurch, Rangiora Christchurch	9 days 8 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	78/481		27 February 1878	Rev. L. Ginaty
4868	28 February 1878	Nathaniel Barwick Annie Elizabeth Maddison	Nathaniel Barnard Archer Annie Elizabeth Maddison 💍 1878/534	Bachelor Spinster	Miller	31 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 weeks 22 years	St. Michaels Church, Christchurch	78/491		28 February 1878	Rev. R. S. Penny
4869	28 February 1878	John Cassin Maria Tracey	John Cassin Maria Tracey 💍 1878/503	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	32 28	Lincoln Road Christchurch	15 years 4 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	78/483		28 February 1878	Rev. L. Ginaty
4870	1 March 1878	William Hunter Charlotte Mary Steding	William Hunter Bristow Charlotte Mary Stedman 💍 1878/554 William Henn Charlotte Ann Maria Wilson 💍 1878/1811	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	29 23	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 20 years	In the Merivale Church	78/535		1 March 1878	Rev. T. Flavell
4871	1 March 1878	James Sherriff Jane Remick	James Sherriff Jane Remick 💍 1878/535	Bachelor Spinster	Stonemason	22 19	Christchurch Christchurch	15 years 3 days	St. Michaels Church, Christchurch	78/492	Having legal authority	1 March 1878	Rev. R. S. Penny
4872	2 March 1878	Henry Belcher Lorrie Adams	Henry Betcher Lizzie Adams 💍 1878/573	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	28 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 2 months	St. Johns Church, Christchurch	78/534		2 March 1878	Rev. H. C. M. Watson
4873	2 March 1878	Thomas Fletcher Elizabeth Stent	Thomas Fletcher Elizabeth Stammton 💍 1878/523	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Dressmaker	22 22	Christchurch Christchurch	13 years 2 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	78/486		2 March 1878	Rev. L. Ginaty

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).