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 548

District of Christchurch 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
292	14 September 1885	Abishai Pressey Elizabeth Deem	Abishai Pressney Farrow Ann Elizabeth Denny 💍 1885/2322	Widower Spinster	Clerk Dressmaker	34 35	Sydenham Sydenham	14 years 8 years	St. Mary's Church, Addington	85/2469	14 September 1885	Rev. H. East
293	15 September 1885	John Turnbull Purnell Chambers		Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	29 23	Christchurch Christchurch	26 years 7 years	Wesleyan Church, Durham Street	85/2509	15 September 1885	Rev. J. Bond
294	15 September 1885	Arthur Trueman Fanny Joynt	Arthur Trueman Chapman Mary Fanny Joynt 💍 1885/2324	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	24 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 24 years	Paparua Church	85/2471	15 September 1885	Rev. J. C. S. Hoare
295	17 September 1885	James Nelson Hannah Crowe	James Nelson Hannah Crowe 💍 1885/2328	Bachelor Spinster	Basket Maker Servant	33 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 3 days	House of J. Inder, Mayo Road, St. Albans	85/2415	17 September 1885	Rev. J. Gee
296	17 September 1885	Alfred Verrall Mary Delaney	Alfred Verrall Mary Delaney 💍 1885/2471	Bachelor Spinster	Builder Servant	30 29	Paparua Paparua	27 years 8 years	House of William Verrall	85/2524	17 September 1885	Rev. S. Solamore
297	17 September 1885	George Scott Cecenie Peters	George Scott Cox Annie Peters 💍 1885/3277	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Porter Machinist	24 22	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 22 years	House of George J. Cox	85/3455	17 September 1885	Rev. W. Deanslie
298	17 September 1885	Clarence Morgan Elizabeth Hewitt	Charles N Morgan Elizabeth Hewitt 💍 1885/3857	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger	22 23	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 23 years	House of Thomas Hewitt, Rintoul Street	85/2857	17 September 1885	Rev. C. H. Gauland
299	18 September 1885	John Wesley Buddle Alice Amelia Leonard	John Wesley Buddle Alice Emilia Leonard 💍 1885/3860	Bachelor Widow	Merchant	35 30	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 6 years	St. Luke's Church, Christchurch	85/2461	18 September 1885	Rev. E. A. Lingard

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).