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 567

District of Christchurch 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
133	22 April 1885	Thomas Morris Ellen Collins	Thomas Morris Ellen Collins 💍 1885/1502	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 25	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 1 year	House of Henry Nute, Rosewarne Paddock	85/1549		22 April 1885	Rev. J. Wilson
134	22 April 1885	Arthur Henry Lawton Ellen Mary Thomas	Arthur Henry Lawton Mary Ellen Thorn 💍 1885/1578	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	34 23	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 1 year	Merivale Church	85/1605		22 April 1885	Rev. J. Flavell
135	23 April 1885	William Wood Mary Teresa Loughnan	William Wood Mary Teresa Loughman 💍 1885/1478	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	27 24	Christchurch Christchurch	27 years 10 years	House of R. J. Loughnan, Ferry Road	85/1523		23 April 1885	Rev. L. McGuinaty
136	23 April 1885	William John Walter Maggie Peebles	William John Walter Maggie Peebles 💍 1885/1969	Bachelor Spinster	Wool Classer	23 24	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 4 years	House of W. J. Walter, Woolston	85/1493		23 April 1885	Rev. G. Bond
137	24 April 1885	Thomas Turnbull Robson Evangeline Steel	Thomas Turnbull Robson Evangeline Steel 💍 1885/1967	Bachelor Spinster	Coal Dealer Dressmaker	26 29	Christchurch Christchurch	26 years 14 years	House of Mrs. Heal, Trafalgar Street, Sydenham	85/1491		24 April 1885	Rev. H. S. Redstone
138	24 April 1885	Archibald Alexander MacPhail Christina MacKay	Archibald Alexander MacPhail Christina MacKay 💍 1885/1485 Alexander Murdock Macran Christina Mackay 💍 1886/207	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	21 23	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 6 weeks	House of Rev. J. Elmslie, Lichfield Street	85/1507		24 April 1885	Rev. J. Elmslie
139	25 April 1885	John Fitzgerald Laura Prior	John Fitzgerald Laura Prior 💍 1885/1585	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Teacher	28 19	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 4 days	St. Michaels Church	85/1583	Emily Powell, Mother	25 April 1885	Rev. W. Harper
140	27 April 1885	John Bryant Jane Jessie Lane		Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	29 29	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 9 years	House of Mrs. Harvey, Cashel Street	85/1550		27 April 1885	Rev. J. Wilson
141	27 April 1885	Samuel Blake Margaret Ann Brown	Samuel Blake Margaret Ann Brown 💍 1885/1537	Bachelor Spinster	Freeman	24 18	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 14 years	Registrars Office, Christchurch	85/1561	George Brown, Father	27 April 1885	J. J. Maulaim

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).