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 566

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
142	27 April 1885	Henry Kitchen Mary Bruce Allery	Henry Kitchingman Mary Bruce Allery 💍 1885/1467	Bachelor Spinster	School Master Nurse	26 25	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 years	Christchurch	85/1573		27 April 1885	Rev. G. Isomd, Wesleyan
143	27 April 1885	William Job Elizabeth Perry	William Sime Elizabeth Page 💍 1885/3227 William Smith Elizabeth Cameron 💍 1886/557 William Downs Elizabeth Ryland 💍 1886/425 William Watson Elizabeth Boyce 💍 1885/1303 William Adams Elizabeth Lucas 💍 1885/2299 William Job Austin Alice Elizabeth Parry 💍 1885/1538 William Smith Elizabeth Tankard 💍 1886/444 William Barr Elizabeth Dickson 💍 1885/3733 William McRobie Elizabeth Stevenson 💍 1885/1724 William Dellow Elizabeth Kate Pine 💍 1885/1577 William McCormick Elizabeth McCloy 💍 1885/3792 William Howie Elizabeth Annie Unwin 💍 1885/3315 William Forsyth Elizabeth Borkaski 💍 1886/713 James William Lee Elizabeth Bell 💍 1885/372 William Neill Elizabeth Minifie 💍 1885/3092	Widower Spinster	Engineer Milliner	48 22	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 9 years	Registrar's Office	85/1562		27 April 1885	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Paulkerson
144	27 April 1885	John Hudson Elizabeth Ann Ferran	John Hudson Elizabeth McFerran 💍 1885/1974	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	28 22	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 10 years	Wm. McFerran's House, Kingsley Street, Sydenham	85/1497		27 April 1885	Rev. J. R. Cairns, Presbyterian
145	28 April 1885	Jeremiah Daly Ellen Dunne	Jeremiah Daly Ellen Dunne 💍 1885/1498	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	32 25	Christchurch Christchurch	14 days 1 year	Roman Catholic Church	85/1524		28 April 1885	Rev. L. M. Geraty, Roman Catholic
146	28 April 1885	John Tracy Elizabeth Sandford	John Tracy Knight Mary Elizabeth Sandford 💍 1885/3727 Martin Murphy Elizabeth Sandford 💍 1885/2135	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	28 21	Christchurch Heathcote Valley	3 days 21 years	St. Michael's Church	85/3381		28 April 1885	Rev. C. J. Merton, Church of England
147	29 April 1885	George Hammer Ruth Cox	George Hanmer Ruth Cox 💍 1885/1586	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	26 24	Christchurch Christchurch	26 years 7 years	Christchurch	85/1586		29 April 1885	Rev. W. Harper, Church of England
148	29 April 1885	Frank Judson Elizabeth Phipps	Frank Jutson Staples Elizabeth Phipps 💍 1885/1966	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Servant	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	11 years 11 years	House of Frederick Staples, Mathewson Road	85/1490		29 April 1885	Rev. J. B. Gilmore, Baptist
149	30 April 1885	William Myles Jessie Patterson	William Myles Jessie Patterson 💍 1885/3699	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 19	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	St. Andrew's Church, Tuam Street	85/385	Charles Patterson, Father	30 April 1885	Rev. W. Dinwiddie, Presbyterian
150	30 April 1885	Arthur Benson Ford Sarah Johnston	Arthur Benson Ford Asenath Sarah Johnston 💍 1885/1539	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker	21 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 20 years	Registrar's Office	85/1563		30 April 1885	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Paulkerson

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).