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 720

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
5164	11 November 1878	Martin Shea Ann Burney	Martin Shea Annie Durney 💍 1878/3311	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer [illegible]	25 23	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 4 days	Roman Catholic Church	78/3348		11 November 1878	Rev L. Ginich
5165	14 November 1878	Henry Bauton Margaret Fee	Henry Barton Margaret Fee 💍 1878/2870	Widower Spinster	Turner Milliner	34 25	Addington Knightstown	3 years 3 years	Wesleyan Chapel	78/2915		14 November 1878	Rev J. Crump
5166	15 November 1878	William Ashcroft Alice Farrar	William Ashcroft Alice Farrar 💍 1878/3154	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer [illegible]	40 28	Christchurch Sydenham	6 years 2 years	St Lukes Church	78/3204		15 November 1878	Rev H. B. Cocks
5167	15 November 1878	James Hill Nellie Fee	James Hill Nellie Fee 💍 1878/2871	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer Schoolmistress	23 19	Sydenham St. Albans	9 months 4 years	Wesleyan Chapel	78/2916	Fee, mother	15 November 1878	Rev J. Crump
5168	15 November 1878	Oscar Owen Unsbeth Annie Lauden	Oscar Owen Elizabeth Annie Landery 💍 1878/2862	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Servant	33 30	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 5 years	St Lukes Church	78/2896		15 November 1878	Rev R. A. Layard
5169	15 November 1878	William Clarke Magdalina Clara Zungraff		Bachelor Widow	Draper	28 32	Christchurch Christchurch	5 months 18 months	Avonside Church	78/2870		15 November 1878	Rev H. Glasson
5170	18 November 1878	Robert Henry Narves Isabella Knight		Bachelor	Draper	23 24	Christchurch Christchurch	1 month 1 month	Durham Street Wesleyan Church			18 November 1878	Rev C. Fraser
5171	18 November 1878	Thomas Chaca Elina Freeman	Albert Thomas Charles Hulston Eliza Freeman 💍 1878/2842	Bachelor Spinster	Rivetter Milliner	22 21	Christchurch Addington	5 years 7 months	Registrar's Office	78/2886		18 November 1878	Registrar of Marriages
5172	19 November 1878	William Swart Lucy Ann Caudish	William Smart Lucy Ann Candish 💍 1878/2872	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	24 21	Sydenham Sydenham	14 years 2 years	In the house, Tuam Street	78/2917		19 November 1878	Rev J. Hodgson
5173	25 November 1878	Alfred Thompson Catherine Christmatain	Alfred Thompson Catherine Christina Davies 💍 1878/2827 Alfred Thompson Mary Paterson 💍 1878/792	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Dressmaker	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	16 months 15 months	In the house, Tuam Street	78/2874		25 November 1878	Rev C. Fraser
5174	25 November 1878	Benjamin Adolphus Jane Margaret Hamblett	Benjamin Adolphus William Thomas Ginder Jane Margaret Gimblett 💍 1878/2859	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Servant	23 28	Christchurch Christchurch	8 months 6 years	Wesleyan Church, Durham Street	78/2903		25 November 1878	Rev W. Morley

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).