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 257

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
1	3 January 1885	Hugh McGrath Catherine Stedman	Hugh McGrath Catherine Steadman 💍 1885/3583	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	27 years 25 years	Fairfield East Taieri	6 years 20 years	Catholic Church, Riccarton	85/794		3 January 1885	Rev. James O'Neill, Roman Catholic
2	27 January 1885	Alexander Barron Helen Whyte	Alexander Barron Helen Whyte 💍 1885/861	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	47 years 30 years	Mosgiel North Taieri	3 days 20 years	House of John Whyte, North Taieri	85/811		27 January 1885	Rev. Wm. Will, Presbyterian
3	27 January 1885	John Whyte Jane Riddle	John Whyte Jane Riddle 💍 1885/853	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 years 25 years	North Taieri Mosgiel	20 years 12 years	House of John Whyte, North Taieri	85/810		27 January 1885	Rev. Wm. Will, Presbyterian
4	29 January 1885	Patrick Frederick Sinclair Sutherland Nancy Ormiston	Patrick Frederick Sinclair Sutherland Nancy Ormiston 💍 1885/872	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	23 years 22 years	Hopehill Greytown	23 years 22 years	House of Richard Bension, Greytown	85/812		29 January 1885	Rev. Wm. Will, Presbyterian
5	10 February 1885	John Shaw Jane Gow	John Shaw Jane Gow 💍 1885/879	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 years 26 years	North Taieri Invermay	3 days 26 years	House of Mr. Gow, of Invermay	85/813		12 February 1885	Rev. Wm. Will, Presbyterian
6	11 February 1885	William Martin Janet Thomson	William Martin Janet Thomson 💍 1885/882 Leslie Buller Marriner Janet Thomson 💍 1885/922	Widower Spinster	Nurseryman	61 years 43 years	Fairfield Fairfield	26 years (5 miles) 14 years	House of William Martin of Fairfield	85/816		11 February 1885	Rev. M. Watt, Presbyterian
7	11 February 1885	Alfred Edward Dyson Louisa Davidson	Alfred Edward Dyson Louisa Davidson 💍 1885/3674	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	19 years 18 years	Mosgiel Mosgiel	3 years 18 years	House of James Davidson of Mosgiel	85/3800	James Davidson, Father (None in Colony)	12 March 1885	Rev. J. M. Sutherland, Presbyterian
8	17 February 1885	James Tanner Mary Bryant formerly Palmer	James Tanner Mary Bryant 💍 1885/852 Alma Edgeler Mary Bryant 💍 1886/740	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	40 years 40 years	Henley Henley	3 years 25 years	Office of Registrar, East Taieri	85/809		17 February 1885	Registrar of East Taieri
9	23 February 1885	Nils Jepson Mary Wilson	Nils Jepson Mary Wilson 💍 1885/881 John Watson Veitch Mary Wilson 💍 1885/3715 William Francis Stewart Mary Wilson 💍 1886/1620	Widower Spinster	Storekeeper	49 years 36 years	Otakia Otakia	22 years 2 months	House of Nils Jepson, Otakia	85/815		23 February 1885	Rev. E. 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).