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 217

District of Tokomairiro Quarter ending 30 September 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
531	1 July 1885	William Coutts Jane Merriles	William Coutts Jane Merrilers 💍 1885/2557	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	19 18	Tokomairiro Tokomairiro	15 years 15 years	In the house of Mr. G. Hall, Waihola	85/739	Mary Coutts, Mother; Alexander Merriles, Father	1 July 1885	Rev. George Hall, Presbyterian
532	25 July 1885	Archibald Morrison Bessie Scott	Archibald Morrison McMillan Bessie Scott 💍 1885/2555	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	27 26	Waitahuna Tokomairiro	16 months 4 years	In the house of Waitahuna	85/2737	Mrs. Jane Scott	25 July 1885	Rev. Jas. Chisholm, Presbyterian
533	28 July 1885	Andrew Liddell Matilda Port	Andrew Liddell Matilda Port 💍 1885/2558	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	28 18	Tokomairiro Tokomairiro	3 months 10 months	In the Presbyterian Church, Milton	85/2740	No person resident in Colony authorised to give consent	1 August 1885	Rev. George Hall, Presbyterian
534	31 August 1885	Augustus Thomas Martha Warner Johnston	Augustus Thomas Martha Warner Johnston 💍 1885/2554	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	29 25	Tokomairiro Tokomairiro	4 days 6 months	In the Wesleyan Church, Milton	85/2736		31 August 1885	Rev. D. J. Murray, Wesleyan
535	1 September 1885	Tom Rolwe Annie Neil Stewart	Tom Rowe Jeannie Neil Stewart 💍 1885/2556	Bachelor Spinster	from Servant	31 41	Tokomairiro Tokomairiro	3 days 2 weeks	In the English Church, Milton	85/2738		7 September 1885	Rev. T. L. Stanley, Church of England
536	18 September 1885	William Robinson Annie Coutts	William Robinson Houston Annie Coutts 💍 1885/2559	Bachelor Spinster	Saw Miller	24 24	Taieri Beach, Tokomairiro Taieri Beach, Tokomairiro	4 years 20 years	In the house of Mary Coutts	85/2741		18 September 1885	Rev. George Hall, Presbyterian
537	19 September 1885	David Todd Annie Laurence	David Todd Annie Lawrence 💍 1885/2560	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 26	West Taieri Taieri Ferry, Tokomairiro	6 years 2 years	In the house of John Laurence, West Taieri	85/2742		19 September 1885	Rev. George Hall, Presbyterian

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).