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 1075

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 31 March 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
14	20 February 1885	William Alfred Floyd Adelaide Scott	William Albert Floyd Adelaide Stotter 💍 1885/292	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 21	Wanganui Wanganui	2 yrs. 1 yr.	In the office of J. M. Woon Registrar	85/286		20 February 1885	J. M. Woon Registrar
15	23 February 1885	Herbert Lewis Ada Marion Moore	Herbert Collier Marion Moore 💍 1885/284	Bachelor Spinster	Music Seller	28 19	Wanganui Wanganui	6 yrs. 10 yrs.	In the Church of St. Paul	85/240		23 February 1885	T. L. Tudor Clergyman
16	23 February 1885	Ernest Smith Charlotte Richardson	Ernest Sanley Charlotte Richardson 💍 1885/295	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 20	Wanganui Wanganui	3 yrs. 12 mos.	In the Church of St. Paul	85/263		9 March 1885	T. L. Tudor Clergyman
17	4 March 1885	Arthur George Carr Louisa Sefton	Arthur George Barnard Louisa Jefcott 💍 1885/307	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	22 17	Wanganui Wanganui	16 mos. 17 yrs.	In the residence of H. Sefton	85/277	H. Sefton, father	12 March 1885	J. T. Grace Clergyman
18	13 March 1885	Andrew Marshall Grace Te Kahini te Hender	Laurence Marshall Grace Te Kahui Te Heuheu 💍 1885/296	Bachelor Spinster	Native Agent	30 25	Wanganui Wanganui	4 days 7 days	In the Kilson Church	85/289		13 March 1885	Jas. Treadwell Presbyterian
19	18 March 1885	James Kinloch Christina Strachan	James Kinloch Law Christina Strachan 💍 1885/294	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 27	No. 3 Line No. 3 Line	6 mos. 27 yrs.	In the residence of M. K. Strachan	85/288		23 March 1885	D. Strachan Clergyman
20	23 March 1885	Frederick William Parish Kate Myline House	Frederick William Powell Kate Mylius Smallbone 💍 1885/302	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	25 28	Wanganui Wanganui	2 mos. 4 days	In the Church of St. Paul	85/272		23 March 1885	T. L. Tudor Clergyman
21	23 March 1885	Nathan Charles Collins Eliza Matilda Collins	Nathan Charles Young Eliza Matilda Collingwood 💍 1885/308	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	23 19	Wanganui Wanganui	2 yrs. 1 yr.	In the residence of T. W. Collins	85/285	T. W. Collins, father	23 March 1885	William Tinley Minister

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).