Intentions to Marry, 1885

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840397, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, April 30 2025

Page 531

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1885

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
388	15 December 1885	Joseph Bettle Elizabeth Robertson	James William Mitton Elizabeth Robertson 💍 1885/1511	Bachelor Spinster	Paper Receiver	26 22	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 6 years	Wesleyan Chapel, Durham St	85/3424		15 December 1885	Rev J. J. Lewis
389	17 December 1885	Adam Whyte Perceval Elizabeth Davis	Adam Whyte Emma Elizabeth Davis 💍 1885/3694	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 23	Halkett Halkett	17 years 17 years	Presbyterian Church, Halkett	85/3652		17 December 1885	Rev H. S. Burnett
390	19 December 1885	Isaac William Harding Fanny Mullis	Isaac William Harding Fanny Mullis 💍 1885/3571	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 18	Prebbleton Prebbleton	22 years 11 years	All Saints Church, Prebbleton	85/3782	William Mullis, Father	19 December 1885	Rev R. J. Thorpe
391	21 December 1885	Alfred Burton Bridget Curtin	Alfred Burton Bridget Curtin 💍 1885/3695	Bachelor Spinster	Platelayer Servant	33 36	Christchurch Christchurch	6 months 4 years	Roman Catholic Church	85/3853		21 December 1885	Rev L. M. Guesty
392	21 December 1885	Charles Storey Hardie Constance		Bachelor Spinster	School Teacher Teacher	23 23	Christchurch Christchurch	13 years 6 years	House of Rev J. Elmslie, Lichfield Street	86/525		21 December 1885	Rev J. Elmslie
393	22 December 1885	Edward Taylor Isabel Sprott		Bachelor Spinster	Mechanic	29 23	Woolston Christchurch	16 years 6 years	St. Lukes Church	85/3443		22 December 1885	Rev Arch. Lingard
394	22 December 1885	Alfred Edwin Elizabeth Loverend	Alfred John Hine Elizabeth Olford 💍 1885/283	Widower Spinster	Labourer	29 26	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 26 years	Wesleyan Chapel	85/3659		22 December 1885	Rev G. Bond
395	24 December 1885	Edwin Henry Wells Mary Pedler	Edwin Henry Wells Margaret Jane Johnston 💍 1885/3348	Bachelor Spinster	Upholsterer Servant	22 30	Christchurch Christchurch	21 years 4 years	Avonside Church	85/3377		24 December 1885	Rev W. A. Pascoe
396	24 December 1885	Wells Jane Johnston		Spinster	Machinist	23	Christchurch	18 years	Church of England			24 December 1885	Rev W. A. Pascoe

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).