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 559

District of Christ Church Quarter ending 30 June 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
203	17 June 1885	Thomas Johnson Mary Davidson	Archibald Martin Junr Mary Davidson 💍 1886/511	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	23 18	Christ Church Christ Church	6 years 6 years	House of Johnson Thomas	85/1537	Alexander Davidson	17 June 1885	Rev. J. Wilson, Bible Christian
204	20 June 1885	Richard Palk Janet Marshall Reeve	Richard Palk Janet Marshall Reeve 💍 1885/1576	Bachelor Spinster	Dairy farmer	27 20	Shirley Shirley	5 years 6 years	Wesleyan Church	85/1603	John Reeve Father	20 June 1885	Rev. H. Garland, Wesleyan
205	20 June 1885	Carrie Hamilton Janet MacIntosh	Gavin Hamilton Janet MacIntosh 💍 1885/1596	Bachelor Spinster	Traveller Dressmaker	33 30	Christ Church Christ Church	14 days 3 weeks	House (commenced)	85/1594		20 June 1885	Rev. J. Lewis, Wesleyan
206	22 June 1885	William Reston Rose Anna Duggan	William Rushton Rose Ann Duggan 💍 1885/1605	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	27 27	Christ Church Christ Church	3 days 6 weeks	Roman Catholic Church	85/1582		22 June 1885	Rev. J. Cherrier, Lincoln
207	22 June 1885	William Drummond Alice Harris	William Drummond Alice Harris 💍 1885/1473	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist Servant	25 18	Christ Church Christ Church	2 years 7 years	St. Saviours Church	85/1507	Richard Harris Father	22 June 1885	Rev. H. S. Cockes, Church of England
208	22 June 1885	Edward Wallis Ellen Cairns	Edward Wallis Ellen Cairns 💍 1885/2399	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	21 19	Christ Church Christ Church	2 years 12 years	Registrars Office	85/2485	Walpole Harris authority to Consent	22 June 1885	Reg.
209	22 June 1885	Andrew Brookman Phoebe Adeline Ellen Head	Andrew Brookman Phoebe Louisa Ellen Head 💍 1885/1582	Widower Spinster	Gardener Servant	41 23	Christ Church Christ Church	1 year 12 years	House of Andrew Brookman, Harrington Road	85/1609		22 June 1885	Rev. J. Coldred, Wesleyan
210	22 June 1885	John Doutreine Smith Sarah English	John Dorantine Smith Sarah English 💍 1885/2397	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Servant	29 23	Christ Church Christ Church	2 years 20 years	Registrars Office	85/2485		22 June 1885	Registrar Marriages

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).