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 790

District of Nelson Quarter ending 30 June 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
38	10 June 1885	John William Astle Emily Bishop	John William Astle Emily Bishop 💍 1885/1438	Bachelor Spinster	Lab Proprietor Nil	28 24	Washington Valley Nelson Washington Valley Nelson	28 years 11 years	Residence of John William Astle, Washington Valley Nelson	85/1419	10 June 1885	Revd William Henry Beck, Wesleyan Church
39	13 June 1885	George Henry Wakefield Frances Nevell	George Henry Wakefield Frances Revell 💍 1885/1442	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Nil	27 23	Hope Waimea Hope Waimea	25 years 3 Weeks	Office of the Registrar, Nelson	85/1423	13 June 1885	Robt Kirton, Registrar
40	15 June 1885	Laurance Sinclair Elizabeth Kune	Laurance Sinclair Elizabeth Lunn 💍 1885/1444 James Sinclair Elizabeth Currie 💍 1886/881	Bachelor Spinster	Cook Servant	21 21	Bridge Street Nelson Bridge Street Nelson	2 months 2 Weeks	Residence of Laurance Sinclair, Bridge Street Nelson	85/1425	15 June 1885	Revd Benjamin Thomas, Wesleyan Minister
41	17 June 1885	Timotheus Blake Huffam Jane Jacobsen	Timotheos Blake Huffam Jane Jacobsen 💍 1885/1439	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Nil	35 21	Victoria Crescent Nelson Britannia Heights Nelson	3 years 6 years	Residence of Jane Jacobsen, Britannia Heights, Nelson	85/1420	17 June 1885	Revd William Henry Beck, Wesleyan Church
42	23 June 1885	James Austin Tarr Ellen Almore	James Austin Tan Ellen Atmore 💍 1885/1448 James Turner Ellen Osborne 💍 1885/2985	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Milliner	25 23	Washington Valley Nelson Alton Street Nelson	25 years 23 years	Residence of Edward Almore, Alton Street Nelson	85/1411	23 June 1885	Revd Henry Josiah Lewis, Congregational Church
43	23 June 1885	Maurice Loof Mary Ann Barker		Bachelor Spinster	Painter Servant	21 27	Collingwood Street Nelson Hardy Street Nelson	6 months 21 years	Catholic Station, Nelson		23 June 1885	Revd William Joseph Mahoney, Roman Catholic Church
44	29 June 1885	Henry Tudor Brewer Sarah Frayer	Henry Tudor Brewer Sarah Eryer 💍 1885/1443	Widower Spinster	Lighthouse Keeper Nil	32 25	Bridge Street Nelson Bridge Street Nelson	4 days 3 days	Office of the Registrar, Nelson	85/1424	29 June 1885	Robt Kirton, Registrar

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).