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 574

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 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
80	16 March 1885	Henry Thomson Annie Coldfield	Henry Thomson Annie Oldfield 💍 1885/682	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Servant	25 20	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years St Lukes Church 18 years Christchurch	St Lukes Church	85/638	Hannah Coldfield, Mother	16 March 1885	Rev. R. Adingard
81	16 March 1885	Arthur Newman Mary Quick	Arthur Newman Mary Quick 💍 1885/643	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Tailoress	18 18	Christchurch Sydenham	18 years House 6 years Sydenham	House	85/620	Caroline Newman, Mother & Thomas Quick, Father	16 March 1885	Rev. J. Wilson
82	16 March 1885	Frederick Robert Beckett Emily Peugelly	Fredrick Robert Beckett Emily Pengelly 💍 1885/1595	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Fitter	23 22	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years House 2 years Worcester Street	House	85/1594		16 March 1885	Rev. R. Best
83	16 March 1885	John William Bartley Jane Webb	John William Bartley Elizabeth Jane Webb 💍 1885/654 William Scott Jane Webb 💍 1885/3685	Widower Spinster	Barman Servant	38 25	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years St Lukes Church 3 months Christchurch	St Lukes Church	85/633		16 March 1885	Rev. R. Adingard
84	17 March 1885	Samuel Newport Elizabeth Cotton	Samuel Newport Mary Elizabeth Cotton 💍 1885/570	Widowed Spinster	Wheelwright Dressmaker	25 17	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days House of John Chapman 2 years Crescent Road	House of John Chapman	85/599	John Chapman, Father	17 March 1885	Rev. J. Ward
85	17 March 1885	Alfred Haylock Annie Decision		Bachelor Spinster	Market Gardener	32 28	Richmond Christchurch	2 months House 2 years Worcester Street	House	85/560		17 March 1885	Rev. R. Best
86	17 March 1885	Dominick Cole Maggie Netherton	Dominick Colle Maggie Netherton 💍 1885/826	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years St Saviours Church 14 days Sydenham	St Saviours Church	85/536		17 March 1885	Rev. H. K. Cocks
87	18 March 1885	James Porteons Catherine Newman	James Porteus Thomson Catherine Newman 💍 1885/821	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	25 23	Christchurch Christchurch, England	6 days St Johns Church 2 days Christchurch	St Johns Church	85/552		18 March 1885	Rev. H. C. M. Watson
88	18 March 1885	James William Matthius Jane Baird	James William Mathias Atkinson Jane Baird 💍 1885/582	Widower Spinster	Bottler Servant	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	6 months Registrars Office 6 months Christchurch	Registrars Office	85/588		18 March 1885	J. M. Ollivier

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).