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 998

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
89	1 April 1885	Thomas Sauvarin Elizabeth Saunders	Thomas Sauvarin Elizabeth Saunders 💍 1885/1309	Widower Widow	Gardener	50 40	Wellington Wellington	years	Registrars office Wellington	85/1279		1 April 1885	W. S. Wyatt, Regr
90	1 April 1885	William Freeman Kitchen Annie Brickham	William Freeman Kitchen Annie Crichton 💍 1885/1307	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	22 22	Wellington Wellington	years	Mr Kitchens House, Luxford Street	85/1277		1 April 1885	Revd J. K. Brown
91	1 April 1885	Henry William Jenner Leonora Howard Drummond	Henry William James Leanore Howard Drummond 💍 1885/1311	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	21 25	Wellington Wellington	years 1 year	Registrars office Wellington	85/1280		1 April 1885	W. S. Wyatt, Regr
92	2 April 1885	Alfred Robin Christina Helen Smart	Alfred Robin Christina Helen Stuart Munro 💍 1885/1316	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	21 23	Wellington Wellington	years	St Marks Church	85/1262		2 April 1885	Revd R. Coffey
93	2 April 1885	Thomas Power Agnes Sinclair	Thomas Power Agnes Sinclair 💍 1885/1393	Widower Spinster	Gardener	46 36	Wellington Wellington	years 7 months	St Johns Schoolroom	85/1248		2 April 1885	Revd J. Paterson
94	2 April 1885	Richard Thornton Guinevere Jane Willis	Richard Thornton Guinevere Jane Willis 💍 1885/1236	Bachelor Spinster	Brickman	22 16	Wellington Wellington	7 months 15	Registrars office Wellington	85/1286	No relation in Colony	16 April 1885	W. S. Wyatt, Regr
95	4 April 1885	William Samuel Robertson Clara Fry	William James Robertson Clara Fry 💍 1885/1243	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 23	Wellington Wellington	years	Registrars office Wellington	85/1287		4 April 1885	W. S. Wyatt, Regr
96	4 April 1885	Peter Todstrum Margaret Bath Rawson	Peter Nordstrum Margaret Bett Dawson 💍 1885/1392	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	44 29	Wellington Wellington	7 days 4 days	House of Mr Sottle, Boulcott Street	85/1247		4 April 1885	Revd J. Paterson
97	4 April 1885	Francis Bailey Mary Power	Francis Bailey Mary Tower 💍 1885/3819	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 26	Wellington Wellington	years 16 months	St Marys Cathedral	85/1234		4 April 1885	Revd J. McNamara
98	4 April 1885	Walter George Shearer Annie Horsley		Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker	20 22	Wellington Wellington	4 days years	Mr Richardsons House, Nairn Street	85/1261	Henry Shearer, father	4 April 1885	Revd W. Baumber
99	4 April 1885	James Falconer Clara Ihan	James Falconer Clara Thorn 💍 1885/1312	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 27	Wellington Wellington	4 days 3 days	Registrars office Wellington	85/1281		4 April 1885	W. S. Wyatt, Regr
100	7 April 1885	James Ridgway Georgina Robertson William	James Ridgway Georgina Robinson 💍 1885/1313	Widower Widow	Labourer	32 29	Wellington Wellington	4 days 4 days	Registrars office Wellington	85/1282		7 April 1885	W. S. Wyatt, Regr

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).