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 1006

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 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
1	2 January 1885	Charles Johnson Susannah Elizabeth Broadhead	Charles Johnson Susannah Elizabeth Broadmead 💍 1885/341 Charles Johnson Mary Ann Bailey 💍 1886/286 Charles Johnson Lina Inglebretson 💍 1885/2342	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 25	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrar's office, Wellington	85/321		2 January 1885	W. I. Wyatt
2	3 January 1885	Anthony Miosich Louisa Handwick	Antony Miosich Louisa Hunwick 💍 1885/360	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	25 21	Wellington Wellington	15 months 1 year	St. Peters Church	85/358		3 January 1885	Ven. the Archdeacon Coffey
3	5 January 1885	Thomas Paul Hemster Edith Blanche Morral	Thomas Paul Hunter Edith Blanche Morrah 💍 1885/359	Bachelor Spinster	Run Holder	24 22	Wellington Wellington	14 days years	St. Peters Church	85/354		5 January 1885	Ven. the Archdeacon Coffey
4	5 January 1885	William Adams Sarah Wordgate	William Adams Sarah Woodgate 💍 1885/348	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer	23 21	Wellington Wellington	years 1 month	Registrar's office, Wellington	85/322		5 January 1885	W. I. Wyatt
5	6 January 1885	Robertson Stewart Booth Kate Hall	Robertson Stewart Booth Kate Hall 💍 1885/425	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	27 24	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	St. Paul's Cathedral	85/345		6 January 1885	Rev. T. Fancourt Coffey
6	9 January 1885	James Toole Brandon Evangeline Selz Gerald	James Poole Brandon Evangeline Fitzgerald 💍 1885/375	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Servant	23 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Mark's Church	85/349		9 January 1885	Rev. R. Coffey
7	12 January 1885	Charles Arthur Simson Elizabeth Fearn	Charles Arthur Stinsen Elizabeth Fearn 💍 1885/369	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	23 19	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Mark's Church	85/366	Jerry Fearn, Father	12 January 1885	Rev. R. Coffey
8	12 January 1885	Eric Hector Lundquist Hannah Walker	Eric Victor Lundqvist Hannah Walter 💍 1885/351	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrar's office, Wellington	85/325		12 January 1885	W. I. Wyatt
9	12 January 1885	Arthur Clothear Amanda Plumb	Arthur Clothier Amanda Plumb 💍 1885/368	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	32 28	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Mark's Church	85/363		12 January 1885	Rev. R. Coffey
10	14 January 1885	Thomas Sherborne Emily Hickson	Thomas Sherborne Farrer Emily Hickson 💍 1885/331	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	22 20	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	Registrar's office, Wellington	85/329	Relation in Colony	28 January 1885	W. I. Wyatt
11	14 January 1885	William Henry Greenfield Ellen Maria Collett	William Henry Greenfield Ellen Maria Collett 💍 1885/349	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 24	Petone Petone	years years	Registrar's office, Wellington	85/323		14 January 1885	W. I. Wyatt
12	15 January 1885	Alexander Ware Emma Jane Ashdown	Alexander Ure Emma Jane Ashdown 💍 1885/350	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 17	Terawhiti Terawhiti	years years	Registrar's office, Wellington	85/324	James David Ashdown, Father	15 January 1885	W. I. Wyatt

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).