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 534

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
363	24 November 1885	Alfred James Jean Moncrieff	Alfred James Oliver Agnes Jean Moncrieff 💍 1885/3284	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Dressmaker	28 29	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years 19 years	St. Lukes Church, Christchurch	85/3440		24 November 1885	Ven Arch: Lingard
364	25 November 1885	Eli Downing J. Lilian		Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	22 19	Christchurch Addington	16 years 19 years	St. Marys Church, Christchurch	85/3429	George Turner, Father	25 November 1885	Rev H. Rast
365	26 November 1885	Hayward Edward Betham Edwards Isabella Henrietta Warren	Edward Betham Edwards Isabelle Henrietta Hayward 💍 1885/3283	Bachelor Widow	Soda water Manufacturer	56 45	Christchurch House of Mr. Hayward, 240 Gloucester St.	5 years 6 weeks	House of Mr. Hayward, 240 Gloucester St.	85/3439		26 November 1885	Very Rev. Dean Jacobs
366	27 November 1885	Archibald Annie Carne	Archibald Henry Annie Orme 💍 1885/3262	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist Servant	22 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 6 months	Registrars Office	85/3417		27 November 1885	Registrar Births & Marriages
367	27 November 1885	Francis Annie O'Dea		Bachelor Spinster	Constable Servant	39 23	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 3 days	Roman Catholic Church, Christchurch	85/3428		27 November 1885	Revd Mr. Guisty
368	30 November 1885	George Taylor Elizabeth Meass	George Taylor Elizabeth Moss 💍 1885/3285 Peter Taylor Elizabeth Wylie 💍 1885/3493 George Taylor Esther Wheavel 💍 1885/144	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 2 years	St. Lukes Church, Christchurch	85/3441		30 November 1885	Ven Arch: Lingard
369	2 December 1885	William George Rutherford Helen Sawbridge	William George Rutherford Helen Sawbridge 💍 1885/3001	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor Nurse	35 27	Wellington Christchurch	6 months 2 years	Registrars Office, Wellington	85/3491		2 December 1885	Registrar Marriages, Wellington
370	2 December 1885	Henry Osborne Devenish Meares		Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	25 25	Christchurch Merivale	8 years 8 years	St. Peters Church, Christchurch	85/3450		2 December 1885	Rev T. Flavell
387	15 December 1885	James Spencer Wilhelmina Williams	James Spencer Wilhelmina Williams 💍 1885/3241	Widower Widow	Labourer Servant	50 50	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 11 years	Registrars Office	85/3418		3 December 1885	Registrar Marriages

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).