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 699

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 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
4954	2 May 1878	William Collier Frances Pubble	William Collier Frances Prebble 💍 1878/1225	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper [illegible]	23 21	Christchurch Pubbleton	2 years [illegible]	In the [illegible]	78/1247		2 May 1878	Rev. de B. Hovell
4955	6 May 1878	William Charles Luxton Ellen Frost	William Charles Luxton Ellen Frost 💍 1878/1269	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher [illegible]	24 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the [illegible] Scotch Church	78/1275		6 May 1878	Rev. C. Fraser
4956	6 May 1878	William Thompson Harriet Fee	William Thompson Harriet Free 💍 1878/1275	Widower [illegible]	Farmer [illegible]	40 30	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 14 days	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser	78/1276		6 May 1878	Rev. C. Fraser
4957	6 May 1878	Benjamin Terry Mary Charlotte Polsey	Benjamin Durey Mary Charlotte Colsey 💍 1878/1276	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 23	Kaituna Christchurch	3 weeks 1 year	In the [illegible] Lyttelton Street	78/1277		6 May 1878	Rev. C. Fraser
4958	6 May 1878	John Alfred Oliver Ellen Eliza Harper	John Alfred Oliver Ellen Eliza Harper 💍 1878/1256	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer [illegible]	24 20	Woolston Woolston	4 years 20 years	In the [illegible] Opawa Church	78/1256	John Harper, Father	6 May 1878	Rev. S. J. C. [illegible]
4959	6 May 1878	Patrick Ryan Bridget Tierney	Patrick Ryan Bridgit Tierney 💍 1878/2374	[illegible] Spinster	[illegible] Servant	27 25	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years [illegible]	In the Roman Catholic Church	78/12363		7 May 1878	Rev. L. Ginaty
4960	9 May 1878	Daniel McKay Louisa Jane Le Brun	Daniel McKay Louisa Jane Le Brun 💍 1878/1274	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 3 days	Christchurch	78/1298		9 May 1878	Registrar of Marriages, M. [illegible]
4961	9 May 1878	Moritz Mark Mary Jane Marks	Moritz Mark Mary Jane Marley 💍 1878/1219	Bachelor Spinster	Physician [illegible]	34 26	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 26 years	In St John's Church	78/1242		9 May 1878	Rev. H. C. M. Watson
4962	9 May 1878	Richard John Cutter Emma Louisa Treasure		Bachelor Spinster	Coach Painter Servant	24 25	Christchurch Christchurch	26 years [illegible]	Christchurch	[illegible]		9 May 1878	Registrar of Marriages, M. [illegible]
4963	10 May 1878	Thomas Patrick Murphy Kate Costello	Patrick Murphy Kate Costello 💍 1878/2375	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	22 22	Christchurch Christchurch	18 years 18 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	78/12364		10 May 1878	Rev. L. Ginaty
4964	10 May 1878	William Ross Munro Alice Boyce	William Ross Munro Alice Boyce 💍 1878/1277	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	34 27	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 1 month	In the house of [illegible] Peel	78/1278		10 May 1878	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).