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 681

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 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
248	16 July 1879	Robert Triggs Elizabeth Triggs	Robert Triggs Elizabeth Maria Harrap 💍 1879/2008	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 23	Papanui Riccarton	14 years 1 year	In the Addington Church	79/1243		16 July 1879	Rev H. East
249	17 July 1879	Alexander Davison Ellen Falloon	Alexander Davison Ellen Falloon 💍 1879/2029	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	39 35	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the House of Rev I. Elmslie, Latimer Square	79/1264		17 July 1879	Rev I. Elmslie
250	18 July 1879	James Henning Mary Henning		Bachelor Spinster	Barrister	23 19	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 3 days	In the Registrar's Office, Barracks Road	79/1285	William Radfud Father	18 July 1879	J. D. Mankerson
251	21 July 1879	Peter Smith Elizabeth Perry	Peter Smith Elizabeth Terry 💍 1879/1975 Peter Smith Margaret Harvey 💍 1879/2256	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the House of Rev C. Fraser, Durham Street	79/1289		21 July 1879	Rev C. Fraser
252	21 July 1879	Charles Hawker Harriet Raine	Charles Hawker Harriet Raine 💍 1879/3349	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 24	New Brighton New Brighton	18 months 18 months	In the New Brighton Church	79/1290		21 July 1879	Rev P. C. Henderson
253	22 July 1879	Robert Ball Harriet Erskine	Robert Ball Harriet Erskine 💍 1879/1966	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	24 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the Rangiora Church, Merivale	79/1295		22 July 1879	Rev T. Hawley
254	24 July 1879	Joseph William Parry Matilda Laukther	Joseph William Parry Emily Matilda Lanktree 💍 1879/3351	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	30 24	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 1 year	In the House of Mr De La Mare, Durham Street	79/1297		24 July 1879	Rev I. Clover
255	25 July 1879	George Gordon Elizabeth Walford	George Gordon Elizabeth Walford 💍 1879/1976	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	24 25	Christchurch Christchurch	15 months 2 years	In the House of Rev C. Fraser, Tuam Street	79/1310		25 July 1879	Rev C. Fraser

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).