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 528

District of Quarter ending 31 December 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
396	24 December 1885	Henry Guest Abigail Downs	Henry Ernest Rowe Abigail Downs 💍 1885/3265	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 27	Christchurch Christchurch	16 years 2 years	St. Luke's Church	85/3444	24 December 1885	Rev. C. Diggins
397	20 December 1885	Harry Crown Oliver Heary		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 18	Christchurch Christchurch	18 months 2 years	Avonside Church	85/3376	20 December 1885	Rev. W. A. Pascoe
398	29 December 1885	William Leighton Mary Logie	William Leighton Mary Logie 💍 1885/3344	Bachelor Spinster	Shipwright Dressmaker	31 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 months 20 years	House of James Logie	85/3373	29 December 1885	Rev. J. Plumsie
399	29 December 1885	Francis Joseph Pope Annie Brown	Francis Joseph Pope Annie Broun 💍 1885/3224	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	25 22	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 14 years	Roman Catholic Church	85/3400	29 December 1885	Rev. C. Cherrier
400	29 December 1885	William Atkinson Louisa Taylor	William Atkinson Louisa Taylor 💍 1886/652	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Housekeeper	49 40	Christchurch Christchurch	2 months 10 days	St. Paul's Church	85/524	29 December 1885	Rev. J. Plumsie
401	29 December 1885	John Christopher Cock Mary Ann Reeve	John Christopher Cock Mary Ann Reeve 💍 1886/687	Widower Spinster	Bricklayer Servant	43 41	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 2 years	Baptist Chapel	86/561	29 December 1885	Rev. C. Dallaston
402	29 December 1885	John Blake Elizabeth Fussell	John Palmer Elizabeth Hill 💍 1885/687 John Boys Elizabeth Curry 💍 1885/3094 John McNoe Elizabeth Murray 💍 1886/825 John Boardman Elizabeth Turner 💍 1885/358 John Mulvany Elizabeth Burns 💍 1885/546 John Officer Elizabeth Marshall 💍 1885/947 John McLeay Elizabeth Fraser 💍 1885/3546 John Arkla Elizabeth Hester 💍 1885/249	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 22	Lincoln Lincoln	5 years 16 years	House of William Fussell	see letter	29 December 1885	Rev. R. J. Porter
403	30 December 1885	Herbert Butler Sarah Ann Ballinger	Herbert Butler Sarah Ann Ballinger 💍 1885/3244	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	31 24	Christchurch Christchurch	9 years 3 years	Registrars Office	85/3421	30 December 1885	Registrar of Marriages
404	31 December 1885	Thomas Hoskins Elizabeth Jane Shannon	Thomas Hoskins Butler Elizabeth Jane Shannon 💍 1886/671	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Servant	25 23	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 3 months	House of Jane Selers	86/545	31 December 1885	Rev. J. Plumsie

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).