Intentions to Marry, 1879

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840391, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, April 30 2025

Page 654

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1879

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
61	10 February 1879	Michael Vaughan Sarah Ann Sebery	Michael Vaughan Sarah Anne Sabey 💍 1879/624	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	30 22	Christchurch Halswell	6 months 22 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	79/523	John Lister, Father	10 February 1879	Rev. J. McNamara
62	11 February 1879	William Martin Sarah Ellen Lister	William Martin Sarah Ellen Lister 💍 1879/1340	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 16	Woolston Woolston	20 years 2 years	In the Woolston Church	79/1304	John Lister, Father	11 February 1879	Rev. C. Hurst
63	11 February 1879	William Hood Fullbrook Agnes Patten Knox	William Wood Fullbrook Agnes Patton Moore 💍 1879/611	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	33 28	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 3 years	In St. John's Church	79/1480		11 February 1879	Rev. H. Chr. Watson
64	11 February 1879	Charles William Pugh Mary Eastin	Charles William Pugh Mary Easton 💍 1879/519	Bachelor Widow	Optician	26 23	Christchurch Rangiora	5 years 20 years	In the Wesleyan Chapel	79/1410		11 February 1879	Rev. J. Aldred
65	13 February 1879	Donald Miller Mary Kelday	Donald Millar Mary Kelday 💍 1879/637	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 25	Christchurch Tuam Street	3 months 3 months	In the house of R. C. Fraser	79/1572		13 February 1879	R. C. Fraser
66	13 February 1879	Jonathan James Rose Jessie Counce	Jonathan James Roose Jessie Connal 💍 1879/520	Bachelor Spinster	Bookkeeper	42 36	Christchurch Cashel Street	6 years 15 years	In the Wesleyan Chapel	79/1414		13 February 1879	Rev. J. S. Luxford
67	14 February 1879	William Lewsley Surridge Emily King	William Lewsley Suridge Emily King 💍 1879/540	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	28 18	Christchurch Cashel Street	1 year 18 years	In the United Methodist Chapel	79/1438	Ellen King, Mother	14 February 1879	Rev. J. Macfarlane
68	15 February 1879	James Foster Rudd Mary Louisa Early	James Foster Rudd Mary Louisa Early 💍 1879/533	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 20	Broadfields Broadfields	3 days 12 years	In the house of Samuel Early	79/1431	Samuel Early, Father	15 February 1879	Rev. Mr. S. Potter

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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).