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 718

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1875

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
5142	October 1878	Arthur Procter Aunie Godlouton	Arthur Procter Annie Godlouton 💍 1878/2837	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	21 26	Christchurch Christchurch	6 days 5 days	In the Registrars Office	78/12881		17 October 1878	Registrar of Marriages, M. Packe[illegible]
5143	October 1878	James French Elizabeth Harrison	James French Elizabeth Harrison 💍 1878/2816	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	22 21	Waltham Waltham	2 years 4 years	In the Presbyterian Church	78/12860		18 October 1878	Rev. J. S. Smalley
5144	October 1878	William Stone Alice Jane Peace	William Stone Alice Jane Pearce 💍 1878/2858	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	29 20	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 15 years	St Lukes Church, Christchurch	78/12894	William Peace, Father	24 October 1878	Rev. E. A. Lingard
5145	October 1878	Edward Washbourne Ellen Julia Gardiner	Edward Washbourne Ellen Julia Gardiner 💍 1878/2847	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	36 21	Riccarton Riccarton	3 days 3 days	In the Springston Church	78/12890		26 October 1878	Rev. H. Stocker
5146	October 1878	George Christmas Harriet Kite	George Christmas Harriet Kite 💍 1878/2838	Bachelor Spinster	Miller Housekeeper	26 28	Christchurch Waltham	1 week 2 days 14 days	In the Registrars Office	78/12882		26 October 1878	Registrar of Marriages, M. Packe[illegible]
5147	October 1878	Edward Morgan Sarah Owen	Edward Morgan Sarah Owen 💍 1878/2839	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	28 29	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 3 months	In the Registrars Office	78/12883		26 October 1878	Registrar of Marriages, M. Packe[illegible]
5148	October 1878	William James Diffin Annie Hanna	William Irwin Diffin Annie Hanna 💍 1878/2800	Bachelor Spinster	Coachbuilder	21 19	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 15 months	In the Durham Street Church	78/12843	There is a [illegible] consent	28 October 1878	Rev. C. Fraser
5149	October 1878	James Beausley Ellen Tuesday	James Beamsley Ellen Tuersley 💍 1878/2840	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	31 22	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 5 days	In the Christchurch Registrars Office	78/12884		29 October 1878	Registrar of Marriages, M. Packe[illegible]
5150	October 1878	Richard Telfer Emma Magdalen Corn	Richard Telfer Emma Magdalan Carr 💍 1878/2874	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	29 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 1 year	In the South Belt Church	78/12919		29 October 1878	Rev. R. F. [illegible]
5151	October 1878	Henry Polwhin Perks Mary Ann Wright	Henry Valentine Perks Mary Ann Wright 💍 1878/2873	Bachelor Spinster	Gasfitter	23 19	Ashbourne Ashbourne	1 year 14 years	In the Congregational Church, Ashbourne	78/12918	Henry Wright, Father	30 October 1878	Rev. R. Foulds
5152	October 1878	Walter William Allwright Rebecca Ausden	Walter William Allwright Rebecca Amsden 💍 1878/3249	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	25 22	Lyttelton Christchurch	28 years 3 months	In St Johns, Lyttelton Church	78/13307		30 October 1878	Rev. H. C. M. Watson

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).