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 787

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
57	21 August 1885	Frederick William Constable Euphemia McIntyre Scott	Frederick William Constable Euphemia McIntyre Scott 💍 1885/2354	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	29 24	Nile Street Nelson Waimea Street Nelson	27 years 6 years	Residence of William Phillips, Waimea	85/2375		21 August 1885	Revd William Henry Beck, Wesleyan Church
58	22 August 1885	Alexander Charles Moore Emily Minnie Balme	Alexander Charles Moore Emily Minnie Balme 💍 1885/2277	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Painter Nil	29 24	Cambria Street Nelson Hardy Street Nelson	20 years 24 years	All Saints Parsonage	85/2383		22 August 1885	Revd Charles William Stagg, Church of England
59	22 August 1885	William Alfred Ellis Emily Myra Constable	William Alfred Ellis Emily Myra Constable 💍 1885/2355	Bachelor Spinster	Lecturer Nil	37 20	Hardy Street Nelson Examiner Street Nelson	14 weeks 20 years	Residence of William Phillips, Waimea Street Nelson	85/2374	Frederick Constable, father	22 August 1885	Revd William Henry Beck, Wesleyan Church
60	24 August 1885	Alfred Webb Ether Smith Bond	Alfred Webb Esther Smith Bond 💍 1885/2345	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	31 25	Alton Street Nelson Alton Street Nelson	14 days 3 months	Residence of Mr James Garrett, 3 months Alton Street Nelson	85/2366		24 August 1885	Revd William Henry Beck, Wesleyan Church
61	25 August 1885	Alexander Morice Ethel Malvina Shaw	Alexander Moriel Ethel Malvina Shaw 💍 1885/2347	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner Nil	31 29	Wallapuana Wallapuana	3 days 3 months	Christchurch	85/2368		25 August 1885	Revd John Pratt Kempthorne, Church of England
62	26 August 1885	August Schroder Mary Fangelow	August Schroder Mary Fanzelow 💍 1885/2268	Bachelor Widow	Farmer Nil	20 28	Hope Waimea Hope Waimea	20 years 20 years	Hope	85/2379	Frederick Charles Schroder, father	26 August 1885	Revd Hermann Wilhelm Kavet, Lutheran Church
63	26 August 1885	James Hart Catherine Anne Blackbourne	James Hart Catherine Anne Blackmore 💍 1885/2356	Widower Spinster	Draper Nil	28 25	Nelson Nelson	5 years 25 years	Residence of Mrs Krouse, Tasman Street Nelson	85/2377		26 August 1885	Revd William Henry Beck, Wesleyan Church
64	29 August 1885	Edward Price Louisa Schroder	Edward Price Louisa Schroder 💍 1885/2257	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Nil	41 29	Nile Street West Nelson Hope Waimea	7 years 29 years	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Nelson	85/2378		29 August 1885	Robert Kidson, Registrar
65	31 August 1885	Edward Woodward Edith Ada Chamberlain	Edward Woodward Edith Ada Chamberlain 💍 1885/2350	Widower Spinster	Fireman Machinist	28 22	Harley Street Nelson Municipal Street Nelson	26 years 22 years	Nelson	85/2372		31 August 1885	Revd William Swift Mahoney, Roman Catholic Church
66	8 September 1885	John Henderson Denton Annie Laura Lines	John Henderson Denton Anne Laura Liner 💍 1885/3831	Widower Spinster	Clerk Nil	35 21	Nile Street East Nelson Bridge Street Nelson	6 years 3 days	Christchurch	85/2369		8 September 1885	Revd John Pratt Kempthorne, Church of England
67	9 September 1885	August Schroder Mary Fangelow	August Schroder Mary Fanzelow 💍 1885/2268	Bachelor Widow	Farmer Nil	20 28	Hope Hope	20 years 20 years	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Nelson	85/2379	Frederick John Schroder, father	9 September 1885	Robert Kidson, Registrar
68	9 September 1885	Christopher Fred John Jordan Dora Annie Christina Schroder		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Nil	29 23	Appleby Hope	29 years 23 years	Lutheran Church	85/2563		9 September 1885	Revd Hermann Wilhelm Kavet, Lutheran Church

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).