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 1073

District of Wanganui 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
31	5 May 1885	Andrew Branchand Elizabeth Taylor Hunt		Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	30 21	Feilding Feilding	15 years 4 years	In the residence of	85/1188	5 May 1885	Rev. E. P. Williams
32	11 May 1885	John Barnes Mary Jane Leech	John Barnes Mary Jane Pepell 💍 1885/1177	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 21	Mosstown Mosstown	2 years 7 years	In the Church of England	85/1190	11 May 1885	Rev. T. Taylor
33	13 May 1885	James Smith Beatrice Eliza Allan		Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	28 19	Wanganui Aramoho	1 year 6 months	In the residence of John Allan, Aramoho	85/1182	13 May 1885	Rev. Wm. Tinsley, Wesleyan
34	18 May 1885	William Batters Mary Jane Barnes	William Cathro Mary Jane Barnes 💍 1885/1169	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	30 23	Springvale Springvale	6 years 10 years	In the residence of Jas. Barnes, Springvale	85/1183	18 May 1885	Rev. Wm. Tinsley, Wesleyan
35	22 May 1885	Alfred George Harris Jane Sander	Alfred George Harris Jane Pender 💍 1885/1170	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	24 16	Wanganui Wanganui	10 days 7 days	In the residence of S. G. Harris, Wanganui	85/1185	22 May 1885	Rev. Wm. Tinsley, Wesleyan
36	1 June 1885	William Gough Susanna Wilson	William Gough Susannah Wilson 💍 1885/1171	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	39 40	Wanganui Wanganui	5 years 8 years	In the residence of M. S. Wilson, Castle Street, Wanganui	85/1186	1 June 1885	Rev. Wm. Tinsley, Wesleyan
37	5 June 1885	John Dunn Mary Gill	John Dunn Mary Gill 💍 1885/1162	Widower Spinster	Carter	45 27	Wanganui Wanganui	4 years 4 months	In the residence of John Dunn, Victoria Street, Wanganui	85/1167	5 June 1885	Rev. Jas. Torry, Presbyterian
38	8 June 1885	William Morrison Mary Josephine Leitch		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 23	Mosstown Mosstown	10 years 2 years	In the residence of the Registrar	85/1180	8 June 1885	J. H. Wood, Registrar
39	9 June 1885	Bartholomew Quinn Kate McMahon	Bartholomew Quirk Catherine McMahon 💍 1885/1174	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 22	Wanganui Wanganui	5 years 9 years	In the Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui	85/1184	9 June 1885	Rev. B. T. Kirk, Roman Catholic
40	30 June 1885	James Leo Kate Verdon	James Leo Kate Verdon 💍 1885/3742	Bachelor Spinster	[illegible] -	42 26	Wanganui Wanganui	7 years 4 weeks	Catholic Church	85/1195	30 June 1885	Rev. C. H. Kirk, Roman Catholic

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).