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 655

District of Christ Church 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
69	17 February 1879	James Knight Jane Rendles	James Knight Jane Rendles 💍 1879/560	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	22 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	In the Registration Office	79/458	17 February 1879	Registrar of Marriage, Markhams
70	17 February 1879	James Henry Smith Agnes Waters Audum	James Henry Smith Agnes Waters Henderson 💍 1879/613	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	28 21	Christchurch Christchurch	8 days 3 years	In St. Michael's Church, Lyttelton	79/488	17 February 1879	Rev. H. C. M. Watson
71	18 February 1879	Denis Beary Bridget Crotty	David Beany Bridget Crotty 💍 1879/625	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	22 22	St. Albans Waltham	2 months 2 weeks	In the Roman Catholic Church	79/524	18 February 1879	Rev. L. M. Ginaty
72	19 February 1879	Richard Rowan Ellen Stark	Richard James Rowe Ellen Small 💍 1880/593 Richard Norman Newby Ellen Hart 💍 1879/612	Widower Widow	Merchant	41 45	Christchurch Christchurch	14 days 13 years	In St. John's Church	79/481	19 February 1879	Rev. H. C. M. Watson
73	20 February 1879	Thomas Hughes Mary Penticost	Thomas Hughes May Pentecost 💍 1879/535	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	33 23	Sydenham Sydenham	9 months 4 weeks	In the Addington Church	79/503	20 February 1879	Rev. H. S. East
74	20 February 1879	Charles Doyle Annie Cavana	Charles Doyle Annie Kavanagh 💍 1879/588	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	35 23	Tai Tapu Harewood Road	10 years 2 years	In the Roman Catholic Church	79/495	20 February 1879	Rev. J. C. Chervier
75	21 February 1879	William Henry Jose Mary Maria Clark	William Henry Jose Mary Maria Clark 💍 1879/614	Bachelor Widow	Draper	26 35	Christchurch Christchurch	13 days 6 days	In St. John's Church	79/489	21 February 1879	Rev. H. C. M. Watson
76	21 February 1879	Frederick Alfred Sheppard Sophia Lucy Sansford	Frederick Alfred Sheppard Trischler Sophia Lucy Dunsford 💍 1879/615	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	26 22	Christchurch Christchurch	9 months 3 years	In St. Michael's Church	79/490	21 February 1879	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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).