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 690

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 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
4874	4 March 1878	George Edwin Cleaver Lucy Attewell	George Edwin Cleaver Lucy Attewell 💍 1878/501	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	21 21	Papanui Papanui	6 years 3 months	In the house of R. C. Freer, Tuam Street	78/764		4 March 1878	R. C. Freer, Pres
4875	4 March 1878	Peter Johnson Maria Jacobine Caroline Hauberg	Peter Johnson Maria Jacobine Caroline Hanberg 💍 1878/476	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 18	Christchurch Christchurch	6 months 4 years	In the house of Mr K. Hauberg, Montreal Street South	78/457	Hauberg, Father	4 March 1878	Rev. J. J. Shelley, Pres
4876	4 March 1878	Edward Tobie Julia M. Kirk	Edward Tobin Julia M Kirk 💍 1878/512	Bachelor [illegible]	Farmer	41 31	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 weeks	In the Roman Catholic Church, Christchurch	78/485		4 March 1878	R. L. Ginaty, [illegible]
4877	4 March 1878	Felix McCormick Elizabeth Gillow		Bachelor Widow	Miner Storekeeper	30 29	Christchurch Christchurch	5 weeks 6 months	In the Registrar's Office	78/485		4 March 1878	Registrar of Marriages, M. Parkinson
4878	4 March 1878	William George Watson Annie Froude	William George Gilbert Watson Annie Froude 💍 1878/566	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	6 months 4 weeks	In the Registrar's Office	78/548		4 March 1878	Registrar of Marriages, M. Parkinson
4879	6 March 1878	William Walter Clifford Mary Ann Heile	William Walter Clifford Mary Ann Neill 💍 1878/569	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	25 26	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 4 days	In the Registrar's Office	78/501		6 March 1878	Registrar of Marriages, M. Parkinson
4880	6 March 1878	George McIntosh Bennett Sarah Ann Sorrell	George McIntosh Bennett Sarah Ann Dorrell 💍 1878/529	Widower Spinster	Grazier	34 21	Christchurch Christchurch	15 months 12 years	In the Methodist Chapel, Cambridge Terrace	78/509		6 March 1878	Rev. W. Linsley, [illegible]
4881	6 March 1878	Peter Nelson Jessie Brown	Petter Nelson Jessie Brown 💍 1878/567	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 19	Heathcote Valley Heathcote Valley	1 year 1 year	In the Registrar's Office	[illegible]	There is no person whose consent is required	6 March 1878	Registrar of Marriages, M. Parkinson
4882	7 March 1878	Henry John William Millman Emma Batt	John Henry William Gerken Emma Batt 💍 1878/568	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 26	Christchurch Greenpark	16 years 18 years	In the Registrar's Office	78/530		7 March 1878	Registrar of Marriages, M. Parkinson
4883	8 March 1878	John Wilson Margaret Dixon	John Wilson Margaret Dixon 💍 1878/490	Widower Spinster	Coachdriver Servant	45 39	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 8 years	In the house of Mr C. Freer, Tuam Street	78/463		8 March 1878	R. C. Freer, Pres
4884	8 March 1878	Henry Tuck Louisa Howard Horsell	Henry Tuck Louisa Horsell 💍 1878/574	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinetmaker	26 20	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 3 years	In the Telegraph Boarding House, Gloucester Street	78/563	There is no person whose consent is required	8 March 1878	Rev. W. Morley, 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 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).