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 686

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
288	29 August 1879	John Familton Elizabeth Kemmith	John Familton Elizabeth Kemnitz 💍 1879/2012	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	25 19	Sydenham Christchurch	6 months 1 year	In the House of Mr. Kemmith, Avon Side	79/2040	Ernest P. August, Father	29 August 1879	Rev. J. H. Bates
289	29 August 1879	Frederick Lambrit Hannah Kitchener	Frederick Lambert Hannah Kitchener 💍 1879/2549	Bachelor Widow	Contractor	34 35	Christchurch Kaiapoi	1 week 4 years	In St. Michaels Church, Christchurch	79/2068		29 August 1879	Rev. R. G. Penny
290	1 September 1879	John McLean Mary Ann Harrison	John McLean Mary Ann Harrison 💍 1879/2032	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	32 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 2 years	In the Presbyterian Church, Rakaia	79/2060		1 September 1879	Rev. J. Elmslie
291	1 September 1879	Frederick Theodore Klingenfield Kate Heath	Frederick Theodore Klingenfield Kate Heath 💍 1879/2043	Bachelor Spinster	Actor	24 23	Christchurch Christchurch	6 days 6 days	In the Registrars Office	79/2052		1 September 1879	Registrar Marriages J M Harkness
292	1 September 1879	James Hoy Mary Ann Perry	James Fry Mary Ann Perry 💍 1879/2042	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	30 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the Registrars Office	79/2053		1 September 1879	Registrar Marriages J M Harkness
293	2 September 1879	William Alexander Simpton Isabella Bruce	William Alexander Simpson Isabella Bruce 💍 1879/2034	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	33 21	Christchurch Christchurch	5 months 3 days	In the Presbyterian Church	79/2068		2 September 1879	Rev. J. Elmslie
294	3 September 1879	John Laffs Elizabeth Hannah Taylor	John Jeffs Elizabeth Hannah Taylor 💍 1879/2025 John Waters Elizabeth Esther Taylor 💍 1879/2621	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Housekeeper	33 24	Templeton Templeton	20 years 4 years	In the Templeton Church	79/2060		3 September 1879	Rev. W. A. Paseae
295	4 September 1879	Malcolm Kerr Sarah McManus	Malcolm Kerr Sarah McManus 💍 1879/1987	Widower Spinster	Lawyer Servant	31 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the House of Rev. C. Fraser	79/2020	No person having authority	4 September 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).