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 582

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
17	14 January 1885	George Potter Bride O'Connor	George Potter Bride O'Connor 💍 1885/614	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker Servant	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 11 months	Registrars Office	85/69		14 January 1885	Registrar Marriages J M Walkerson
18	17 January 1885	David Grubb Caroline Sanford	David Grubb Caroline Barford 💍 1885/579	Bachelor Spinster	Shipwright	26 20	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 4 days	Presbyterian Church	85/607	Runna Lloyd, Mother	17 January 1885	Rev R. Erwin
19	17 January 1885	George Rames Franklin & Mary Jane Strain		Bachelor Spinster	Draper	22 24	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 10 years	St. Pauls Church	85/611		17 January 1885	Rev J. Plumslie
20	17 January 1885	Josiah Whitworth Esther Carr	Josiah Whitworth Esther Carr 💍 1885/615	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	34 21	Papanni Papanni	6 months 14 days	Registrars Office	85/640		17 January 1885	Registrar Marriages J M Walkerson
21	19 January 1885	Frank Spencer Anna Kruse	Frank Spencer Anna Kruse 💍 1885/3663	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 22	Christchurch Papanni	15 days 22 years	Presbyterian Church	85/699		19 January 1885	Rev F M Hauswell
22	20 January 1885	Arthur Irounside Mary Reid	James Johnston Mary Reid 💍 1885/1639	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 5 years	St. Lukes Church	85/681	Mary Reid, Sydney	20 January 1885	Rev T. A. Lingard, Church of England
23	20 January 1885	Andrew Douglas Hardie Grace Harvey	Andrew Douglas Hardie Grace Harvey 💍 1885/616	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 10 years	Registrars Office	85/871		20 January 1885	Registrar Marriages J M Walkerson
24	21 January 1885	Arthur Bartmall Georgina Vina Boles	Arthur Dartnall Georgina Eliza Bolus 💍 1885/617	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	27 27	Christchurch Christchurch	27 years 1 year	Registrars Office	85/872		21 January 1885	Registrar Marriages J M Walkerson
25	22 January 1885	William Clarke Henning & Marie Misch		Widower Spinster	Draper	34 23	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 23 years	House of George Swann	85/618		22 January 1885	Rev C. Dallaston, Baptist

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).