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 705

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
5020	June 1878	Henry James Sursford Frances Ann [illegible]		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	10 days 1 week	Presbyterian Church, Tuam Street	78/2046		June 21 1878	R. C. Fraser
5021	June 1878	Arthur William Everitt Mary Agnes Mansfield	Arthur William Everitt Sliffe Margaret Anastasia Mansfield 💍 1878/1441	Bachelor Widow	Clerk	24 25	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 years	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	78/1302		June 24 1878	Registrar of Marriages, J.P. Jameson
5022	June 1878	Ernest Arthur Green Sarah Ellen Green	Ernest Arthur Green Sarah Ellen Green 💍 1878/2160	Bachelor [illegible]	Baker	20 22	Christchurch Christchurch	19 years 1 year	St Paul's Church, Christchurch	78/2089	Edward Green, Father	June 24 1878	Rev. H. C. M. Watson
5023	June 1878	Frederick Bashford Eliza Dance	Frederick Bashford Eliza Durce 💍 1878/2161	Bachelor Spinster	Constable Servant	25 23	Lincoln Christchurch	14 days 2 years	St John's Church, Christchurch	78/2090		June 24 1878	Rev. H. C. M. Watson
5024	June 1878	Robert Dann Martha Wild	Robert Dann Martha Wild 💍 1878/1266	Widower Widow	Labourer	41 40	Christchurch Christchurch	6 months 2 years	St John's Church, Christchurch	78/1291		June 24 1878	Rev. H. C. M. Watson
5025	June 1878	Thomas Edwards Lucy Eyre	Thomas Edwards Lucy Eyre 💍 1878/2159	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 21	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 1 month	St Luke's Church, Christchurch	78/2088		June 25 1878	Rev. H. C. M. Watson
5026	June 1878	Humphries Coule Emily Louisa Opie	Henry Lancombe Emily Louisa Opie 💍 1878/2108	Widower Spinster	Farmer Housekeeper	35 27	Broadfields Springston	5 years 6 months	Scotch Church, Tuam Street	78/2059		June 26 1878	R. C. Fraser
5027	June 1878	Robert McWalter Mary Kelly	Robert McWalter McMurray Mary Kelly 💍 1878/2096	Widower Widow	Baker Grocer	35 45	Christchurch Colombo Street	3 years 27 years	Presbyterian Church, Tuam Street	78/2048		June 27 1878	R. C. Fraser
5028	June 1878	Matthew Mitchell Jane McKinlay	Mathew Mitchell Jane McKinlay 💍 1878/2095	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver Servant	31 25	Christchurch Christchurch	1 month 3 years	Presbyterian Church, Tuam Street	78/2044		June 28 1878	R. C. Fraser
5029	June 1878	Henry Alfred Cox Louisa Carter	Henry Alfred Cox Louisa Carter 💍 1878/2099	Bachelor Widow	Farmer Farmer	25 28	Papanui Papanui	3 years 10 years	Presbyterian Church, Tuam Street	78/2057		June 28 1878	R. C. Fraser
5030	June 1878	John Wood Elizabeth Boell	John Wood Elizabeth Doell 💍 1878/2068	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	20 18	Riccarton Riccarton	4 years 13 years	Riccarton Church	78/2011	Robert Boell, Father, Maria Boell, Mother	June 28 1878	R. C. Bowen

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).