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 578

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
35	2 February 1885	Charles Haughley Garland & Eleanor Jackson		Bachelor Spinster	Minister Draper	27 24	St. Albans St. Albans	2 years 10 days	Wesleyan Chapel	85/593	2 February 1885	Rev. W. Morley
36	3 February 1885	Isaac Lowenstern Edith Angel	Isaac Lowenstern Edith Angel 💍 1885/621	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	28 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 5 years	Registrar's Office	85/576	3 February 1885	J. J. Paulkerson
37	3 February 1885	Richard Albert Tucker Jane Lloyd	Richard Albert Tucker Jane Lloyd 💍 1885/641	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	31 35	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 4 years	Baptist Chapel	85/621	3 February 1885	Rev. C. Dallaston
38	4 February 1885	William Clarke Agnes Murray	William Clarke Agnes Murray 💍 1885/640	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer Dressmaker	24 25	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 5 years	Baptist Chapel, Oxford Terrace	85/620	4 February 1885	Rev. C. Dallaston
39	5 February 1885	John Henry Thackwell Mary Atchison	John Henry Thackwell Mary Atchison 💍 1885/658	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 26	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 5 years	Wesleyan Chapel, East Belt	85/614	5 February 1885	Rev. G. Bond
40	6 February 1885	Hunter Joseph Dawson Emily Edgar	Hunter Joseph Davison Emily Edgar 💍 1885/1470	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	25 23	Christchurch Christchurch	25 years 7 months	Roman Catholic Church	85/1576	6 February 1885	Rev. W. McGuity
41	7 February 1885	Myles Russell Macdonnell Margaret Bell	Myles Randle MacDonnell Margaret Bell 💍 1885/1469	Bachelor Spinster		55 45	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 3 months	Roman Catholic Church	85/1575	7 February 1885	Rev. W. McGuity
42	7 February 1885	John Smith Catherine Thompson	John Smith Kattie Thompson 💍 1885/622 James Galbraith Catherine Thompson 💍 1886/3458	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 7 years	Registrar's Office	85/577	7 February 1885	Registrar of Marriages
43	7 February 1885	Henry Sedley Joseph Beau Elizabeth Jane Sweeney	Henry Denby Joseph Bean Elizabeth Sweeney 💍 1885/1471	Bachelor Spinster	Cooper	21 18	Christchurch Christchurch	18 years 18 years	Roman Catholic Church	85/1579	7 February 1885	Rev. W. McGuity

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).