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 722

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 of 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
5186	2 December 1878	Arthur John West Sarah Shepard	Arthur John Neal Sarah Shepard 💍 1878/2849	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Schoolmistress	25 25	Halswell Halswell	2 Years 6 Years	In the Halswell Church	78/2892		2 December 1878	Rev. W. A. Pascoe
5187	3 December 1878	Henry Marks Baker Selina Cotterell	Henry Marks Baker Selina Cotterill 💍 1878/2864	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Dressmaker	26 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 6 Years	In St Lukes Church	78/2898		3 December 1878	Rev. E. A. Lingard
5188	3 December 1878	Andrew Tweedie Margaret Ferguson	Andrew Tweedie Margaret Ferguson 💍 1878/2830	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 19	Sydenham Sydenham	6 weeks 14 Years	In the Scotch Church, Tuam Street	78/2850	Ferguson, Father	3 December 1878	Rev. C. Fraser
5189	4 December 1878	Edwin Frederick Butcher Margaret McWilliam	Edwin Frederick Moore Margaret McWilliam 💍 1878/2863	Bachelor Spinster	Bookkeeper	22 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Years 11 Years	In St Lukes Church	78/2894	John McWilliam, Father	4 December 1878	Rev. E. A. Lingard
5190	5 December 1878	George Moody Frances Obetime	George Moody Frances Overton 💍 1878/2843 George Moody Mary Holt 💍 1878/861	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Housekeeper	40 38	Papanui Papanui	5 Years 4 Years	In the Registrars Office	78/2884		5 December 1878	Registrar of Marriages, M. Parkinson
5191	5 December 1878	Henry Harvey Alicia Mary Cunningham	Henry Harvey Alicia Mary Cunningham 💍 1878/2832	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	35 20	Papanui Sydenham	4 Years 1 Year	Christchurch	78/2887	There is no person having authority to give consent	5 December 1878	Rev. C. Fraser
5192	5 December 1878	Samuel Alpe Caroline Mellor Dickinson	Samuel Alpe Caroline Mellon Dickenson 💍 1878/2890	Bachelor Widower	Carpenter Grocer	24 43	Sydenham Christchurch	1 Year 4 Years	Leeston Street	78/2852		5 December 1878	Rev. T. Flavell
5193	9 December 1878	Herbert Peake Ellen Pemberthy	Herbert Peake Ellen Pemberthy 💍 1878/2869	Bachelor Spinster	Clothier Milliner	21 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Years 16 Years	In the Wesleyan Church, Durham Street	78/2910	Henrietta Pemberthy, Mother	9 December 1878	Rev. L. M. Isitt
5194	9 December 1878	Thomas Foster Sarah Rutledge	Thomas Foster Sarah Rutledge 💍 1878/2875	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	28 21	Papanui Riccarton	9 Years 9 Years	In the Addington Church	78/2920		9 December 1878	F. G. Brittan
5195	9 December 1878	James Hirou Hannah Elizabeth Muff	James Hiron Hannah Elizabeth Muff 💍 1878/2888	Widower Spinster	Baker Servant	27 24	Christchurch Merivale	1 Year 2 Years	In the Merivale Church	78/2908		9 December 1878	Rev. H. East
5196	11 December 1878	Michael Collef Mary Ann Smith	Richard Morrow Sarah Ann Smith 💍 1878/128	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 weeks 6 days	In the Roman Catholic Church	[attached]		11 December 1878	Rev. T. 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).