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 727

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 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
5219	24 December 1878	William Austwick Sarah Ann Parsons	William Ambrose Goodwin Sarah Ann Parsons 💍 1878/2813	Widower Widow	Carpenter [illegible]	45 36	Christchurch Christchurch	14 Years 18 Years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser, Madras Street	78/12857		December 1878	Rev. C. Fraser
5220	24 December 1878	Thomas Acton Harriet Whiteman	Thomas Arthur Bullock Harriet Whiteman 💍 1879/603	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter [illegible]	27 22	Christchurch Christchurch	5 Years 13 Years	In St Pauls Church, Christchurch	79/483		December 1878	Rev. H. C. M. Watson
5221	27 December 1878	Joseph Roberts Kate Smith	Joseph Roberts Kate Smith 💍 1878/3383	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer [illegible]	33 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 4 Years	In the house of Rev. J. Elmslie, Madras Street, South Rakaia	79/468		December 1878	Rev. C. Dallaston, Bapt
5222	27 December 1878	Andrew Laurie Annie Lloyd	Andrew Lawrie Annie Lloyd 💍 1879/571	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper [illegible]	36 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Years 10 Years	In St Pauls Church, Cashel Street	79/481		December 1878	Rev. J. Elmslie, Pres
5223	27 December 1878	George Harrison Matilda Bailey	George Harrison Matilda Jane Battley 💍 1879/531	Bachelor Spinster	Platelayer Servant	29 22	Waltham Waltham	1 Year 4 Years	In the Wesleyan Chapel, Sydenham	79/425		December 1878	Rev. J. S. Smalley, Wes
5224	27 December 1878	Richard Beach Jane Eliza Service	Richard Black Jane Eliza Serjeant 💍 1879/1285	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer [illegible]	34 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 19 Years	In St Lukes, Kaiapoi Church	79/1247		December 1878	Rev. R. A. Lingard, CofE
5225	27 December 1878	Hugh Elder Mary Fillees	Hugh Elder Mary Gilles 💍 1878/2815	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	23 44	Christchurch Addington	6 days 6 days	In the Scotch Church	78/12859		December 1878	Rev. C. Fraser, Pres
5226	27 December 1878	Isaac Hyde Mary Guy	Isaac Hyde Mary Guy 💍 1878/2853	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Laundress	23 39	St. Albans St. Albans	18 months 1 Year	In St Pauls Church	78/12873		December 1878	Rev. J. Elmslie, Pres
5227	27 December 1878	William Macdonell Mary Mawhinney	William Macdonald Mary Mawhinney 💍 1879/541	Bachelor Spinster	Thresher Servant	26 26	Christchurch Christchurch	5 months 4 Years	In the house of Rev. C. Fraser, Tuam Street	79/421		December 1878	Rev. C. Fraser, Pres
5228	27 December 1878	Lachlan McQueen Rhoda Jane Hawkins		Bachelor Spinster	Shipwright Servant	27 20	Opawa Opawa	5 weeks 18 months	In the Church	[illegible]	There is no person having authority to give consent	December 1878	Rev. J. S. Cholmondeley, CofE
5229	27 December 1878	Ambrose Johnston Mary Sophia Johnston	Ambrose Johnston Mary Sophia Johnson 💍 1879/570	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	26 20	Sydenham Christchurch	7 Years 1 Year	In the house of Rev. W. Mason	[illegible]	There is no person having authority to give consent	December 1878	Rev. J. Elmslie, Pres

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).