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 976

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
307	1 December 1885	John Benjamin Dalton Sarah Blanford	John Benjamin Dalton Sarah Blandford 💍 1885/3036	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker	20 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	Name of Mr. Dalton, Luck Street	85/3138	Father	1 December 1885	Revd. Levy Smith
308	1 December 1885	Alfred Frederick Tolhurst Phoebe Minette Petherick	Alfred Frederick Tolhurst Phoebe Minette Petherick 💍 1885/3022	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	29 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office, Wellington	85/3188		1 December 1885	Mr. W. D. Wyatt, Registrar
309	2 December 1885	James Woods Sarah Brookholding Tompkins		Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	32 25	Wellington Wellington	11 months 1 year	Registrars office, Wellington	85/3189		2 December 1885	Mr. W. D. Wyatt, Registrar
310	3 December 1885	Henry Thomas McCardell Mary Elizabeth O'Shea	Harry Thomas McCardell Mary Elizabeth O'Shea 💍 1885/2977	Bachelor Spinster	Draftsman	27 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Marys Cathedral	85/3142		3 December 1885	Revd. J. McShane
311	3 December 1885	William Jay Ellen Wilson	William Tay Ellen Wilson 💍 1885/3032	Weaver Spinster	Gardener	46 43	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Somerville, Taranaki Street	85/3172		3 December 1885	Revd. P. R. Hinde, Primitive
312	5 December 1885	William Bailey Elizabeth Brickley	William Bailey Elizabeth Brickley 💍 1885/3023	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	21 21	Wellington Wellington	years 11 months	Registrars office, Wellington	85/3190		5 December 1885	Mr. W. D. Wyatt, Registrar
313	5 December 1885	Albert Mackin Bridget Gertrude Neville	Albert Malkin Bridget Gertrude Neville 💍 1885/3024	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 23	Wellington Wellington	14 days years	Registrars office, Wellington	85/3190		5 December 1885	Mr. W. D. Wyatt, Registrar
314	5 December 1885	William George Rutherford Helen Sawbridge	William George Rutherford Helen Sawbridge 💍 1885/3001	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Engineer	35 27	Wellington Christchurch	6 months 2 years	Registrars office, Wellington	85/3191		5 December 1885	Mr. W. D. Wyatt, Registrar
315	9 December 1885	Ernest Francis Devereux Mary Madeleine Ramsay		Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	28 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Marks Church	85/3136		9 December 1885	Revd. Richard Coffey
316	10 December 1885	John Lilling Fanny Guilliam	John Tilbury Fanny Gwilliam 💍 1885/3031	Weaver Spinster	Gardener	32 21	Hutt Hutt	years 9 months	Residence of Mr. Lilling, Hutt	85/3171		10 December 1885	Revd. D. D. Rodger
317	11 December 1885	Joseph Handitician Emma Frances Goodier	Joseph Harris Wilson Emma Frances Gooder 💍 1885/2991	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	26 25	Timaru Wellington	years years	House of Revd. L. H. Scott, Willis Street	85/3155		14 December 1885	Revd. R. M. Scott
318	14 December 1885	Hugh Minchin Isabella Gower	Hugh Minchin Isabella Gorrie 💍 1885/3002	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 26	Taita Whitemans Valley	5 months years	Registrars office, Wellington	85/3192		16 December 1885	Mr. W. D. Wyatt, 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 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).