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 780

District of Warwick Quarter ending 30 April 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
4	9 April 1885	William Eden Alice McMurray	William Eden Alice McMurray 💍 1885/1453	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Housewife	22 20	Wakefield Brightwater	2 years 10 months	Registration Office, Wakefield	85/1433	Miles, father of Bride	9 April 1885	Rev. S. S. Miles
5	29 April 1885	Frederick William Emmeling Rowena Catherine Gorege	Frederick William Tunnicliff Rowena Catherine Savage 💍 1885/1449	Bachelor Spinster	Insurance Agent Domestic	22 19	Wakefield Wakefield	2 years 1 year	Registration Office, Wakefield	85/1429	Shiel Gorege, father	29 April 1885	Shiel Gorege, Registrar of Marriages
6	8 May 1885	Robert Herr Jane Rutherford	Robert Kerr Jane Brotherford 💍 1885/1450 Robert Dawbin Jane Sutherland 💍 1885/1173	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	25 23	Brightwater Brightwater	2 years 2 years	Registration Office, Wakefield	85/1430	Mrs. S. Shiel Gorege, mother	8 May 1885	Shiel Gorege, Registrar of Marriages
7	19 May 1885	William Bolt Margaret Baird	William Ratt Margaret Bird 💍 1885/1452 William Clow Margaret Hall 💍 1885/1128 William Kroon Margaret Fraser 💍 1885/2654 William Preece Margaret Boyd 💍 1885/2919 William Porter Margaret Alexander 💍 1885/1182 William Bennett Margaret Corcoran 💍 1885/3839 William Ellis Margaret Redpath 💍 1885/788 William Bannister Margaret Taylor 💍 1886/201 William Forrester Margaret Watson 💍 1885/1663 William Inns Margaret McCleary 💍 1885/2082 William Barrow Margaret Colley 💍 1885/2086 William Walsh Margaret Jane Pennial 💍 1885/280 William Craig Margaret French 💍 1886/1011 William Houston Anderson Margaret Burt 💍 1885/1746	Widower Spinster	Farmer Domestic	59 51	Wakefield Wakefield	40 years 30 years	Residence of J. Baker, Wakefield	85/1432	J. Baker	19 May 1885	Rev. H. G. Baker, Church of England
8	22 May 1885	Alfred Jones Elizabeth Collard	Alfred John Hine Elizabeth Olford 💍 1885/283	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	23 21	Foxhill Wakefield	2 years 15 years	Registration Office, Wakefield	85/1431	Shiel Gorege, father	22 May 1885	Shiel Gorege, Registrar of Marriages
9	12 June 1885	Albert Heath Annie Smith	Edward Beardsmore Annie Smith 💍 1885/1887	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	21 19	Spring Grove Spring Grove	2 years 7 days	Residence of J. Smith, Spring Grove	85/1427	J. Smith, father	12 June 1885	Rev. Patrick Calder, Presbyterian Minister

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).