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 581

District of Quarter ending

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
26	22 January 1885	Ranald Macinton Gertrude Gould Meacdonald		Bachelor Spinster	Register	24 21	Christchurch Springfield Road	7 years 21 years	House of Mr. G. Gould	85/639	22 January 1885	Revd. Aldred Wesleyan
27	23 January 1885	Henry Christopher Lane Blanche Brandon	Henry Christopher Lane Blanche Baudoin 💍 1885/817	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 14 days	St. Johns Church	85/548	23 January 1885	Revd. H. C. Watson Church of England
28	28 January 1885	William Back Maria Louisa Barrett	William Bach Maria Louisa Derrett 💍 1885/646	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	32 27	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 20 years	Papanui Church	85/624	28 January 1885	Revd. J. C. B. Hoare Church of England
29	28 January 1885	Joseph Seales Barbara Louisa Betham Edwards	Joseph Scales Barbara Louisa Betham Edwards 💍 1885/620	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 22	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 3 years	Registrars Office	85/545	28 January 1885	Registrar of Marriages J. M. Mackesson
30	28 January 1885	Claude Henry George Parker Elizabeth Ruth Stephens	Claude Henry George Parker Elizabeth Ruth Stephens 💍 1885/618	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Servant	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 10 years	Registrars Office	85/543	30 January 1885	Registrar of Marriages J. M. Mackesson
31	30 January 1885	John Avery Delawain Nellie Day	John Avery Delamain Nellie Day 💍 1885/619	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 22	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 6 years	Registrars Office	85/544	30 January 1885	Registrar of Marriages J. M. Mackesson
32	30 January 1885	John Cryer Annie Riley	John Cryer Annie Kelly 💍 1885/586	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	27 24	Christchurch Durham Street	5 years 5 years	Wesleyan Church	85/592	30 January 1885	Revd. R. Best Wesleyan
33	31 January 1885	Henry Joseph Skirten Mary Sophia Griffiths		Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	26 23	Riccarton Riccarton	11 years 14 years	Wesleyan Church	85/594	31 January 1885	Revd. C. H. Garland Wesleyan
34	2 February 1885	George John Warren Emma Ratcliffe	George John Warren Emma Ratcliff 💍 1885/639	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	31 21	St. Albans St. Albans	9 years 18 months	Baptist Chapel Oxford Terrace	85/619	2 February 1885	Revd. C. Vallaston Baptist

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).