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 1072

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 30 September 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
41	1 July 1885	William Henry Reid Margaret Mary Ralla	William Henry Reid Margaret Mary Dallas 💍 1885/3732	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 20	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days 15 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	85/2186	J. Ralla father	4 July 1885	F. H. Wood, Registrar
42	7 July 1885	Samuel Potter Kate Hooper	Samuel Potter Kate Hooper 💍 1885/3736	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	20 18	Wanganui Putiki	3 days 7 months	In the Wesleyan Church, Wanganui	85/2190	J. L. Potter father, J. Hooper father	7 July 1885	William Tim, Wesleyan
43	9 July 1885	David Spidame Barrett Louisa Keeting	David Pridaux Barrett Louisa Streeter 💍 1885/3735	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	21 19	Wanganui Wanganui	4 years 11 years	In the residence of Jas. R. Keeting, Campbelltown, Wanganui	85/2189	J. R. Keeting father	9 July 1885	L. J. Steele, Baptist
44	13 July 1885	George Forgione Margaret Jane Doran	George Spriggens Margaret Jane Doran 💍 1885/3737	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	22 22	Wanganui Wanganui	9 years 4 years	In the residence of W. Spriggins, Victoria Avenue, Wanganui	85/2191		13 July 1885	William Tim, Wesleyan
45	17 July 1885	William Tozer Elizabeth Ann Lord	William Tyler Elizabeth Ann Jones 💍 1885/3731 William Bailie Elizabeth Ann Morris 💍 1886/512 William Howie Elizabeth Annie Unwin 💍 1885/3315 William Frazer Elizabeth Steedman 💍 1885/204 William Smith Elizabeth Tankard 💍 1886/444 William Barr Elizabeth Dickson 💍 1885/3733 William Downs Elizabeth Ryland 💍 1886/425 William Thomson Elizabeth Johnstone 💍 1885/328 William Shuker Elizabeth Rebecca Beard 💍 1885/3081 William Sime Elizabeth Page 💍 1885/3227 William John Gribble Elizabeth Ann Birdsall 💍 1885/2700 William Smith Elizabeth Cameron 💍 1886/557 William Neill Elizabeth Minifie 💍 1885/3092 William Smart Elizabeth Jane Douglas 💍 1886/259 William Thomas Gorin Elizabeth Jane Kirby 💍 1885/3047	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	48 40	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days 3 days	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	85/2185		17 July 1885	F. H. Wood, Registrar
46	27 July 1885	Robert Houston Chambers Ellen Harrison	Robert Kingston Chamberlain Ellen Harrison 💍 1885/3746	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager	28 24	Wanganui Wanganui	4 days 20 years	In the Church of England, Wanganui	85/2199		27 July 1885	T. Tudor, Church of England
47	28 July 1885	Arthur Edward Hodder Jane Sweeney	Arthur Howard Wooley Jane Mary Sweeney 💍 1885/3743	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	27 20	Wanganui Wanganui	4 years 5 years	In the residence of A. Hodder, Guyton Street, Wanganui	85/2196	J. Sweeney father	28 July 1885	C. H. Taite, Roman Catholic
48	31 July 1885	John Sullivan Kate O'Brien	John O'Sullivan Kate O'Brien 💍 1885/3744 John Webb Jane O'Brien 💍 1885/390	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 22	Wanganui Wanganui	6 months 2 years	In the Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui	85/2197		31 July 1885	C. H. Taite, Roman Catholic
49	1 August 1885	Louis Stanley Hamett Ford Alice Emily Hamilton Ford		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 25	Haramaratitara Haramaratitara	5 years 4 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	85/2184		1 August 1885	F. H. Wood, 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).