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 1076

District of Wanganui 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	5 January 1885	Frederic Broughton Brough Mary Ellen Kearins	Frederic Broughton Brough Mary Ellen Kearins 💍 1885/285	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 21	Wanganui Wanganui	5 days 7 months	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	85/249		5 January 1885	F.H. Noon
2	12 January 1885	John Hill Ani Patena Tuhia	John Hall Ani Patene Tuhia 💍 1885/286	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Maori	28 55	Kaipo Kaipo	2 years 3 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	85/280		12 January 1885	F.H. Noon
3	13 January 1885	John Holt Kate Urquhart	John Holt Kate Urquhart 💍 1885/287	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	28 24	Wanganui Wanganui	12 months 20 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	85/281		13 January 1885	F.H. Noon
4	16 January 1885	William Henry Austin Emily Owen Fines	William Henry Austin Emily Gwen Finer 💍 1885/303	Bachelor Spinster	Stockman	25 16	Kai-iwi Wanganui	4 years 11 years	In the residence of F.W. Fines, Liverpool St, Wanganui	85/273	F.W. Fines, father	16 January 1885	William Tinsley
5	2 February 1885	William Gardiner Nora Margaret Carroll	William Gardiner Junr Nora Margaret Caroll Nathan 💍 1885/304	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 24	Wanganui Wanganui	6 weeks 7 months	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	85/274		2 February 1885	William Tinsley
6	2 February 1885	John Isaac Pannell Annie Stephenson	John Isaac Pennell Annie Stephenson 💍 1885/289	Bachelor Spinster	Platelayer	27 29	Wanganui Wanganui	2 years 7 months	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	85/283		7 February 1885	F.H. Noon
7	3 February 1885	Alexander Hugh Maclean Henrietta Tolen	Alexander Hugh Maclean Henrietta Sorley 💍 1885/293	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	29 24	Wanganui Wanganui	4 years 6 years	At H. Tolen's, Wanganui	85/284		3 February 1885	James Treadwell
8	4 February 1885	Richard Spinshaw Emma Jane Harrington	Richard Openshaw Emma Jane Harrington 💍 1885/288	Widower Spinster	Engineer	50 25	Wanganui Wanganui	20 years 1 year	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	85/282		4 February 1885	F.H. Noon
9	9 February 1885	Arthur Ellis Martha Parker	Arthur Ellis Martha Farley 💍 1885/290	Bachelor Spinster	Runholder	29 27	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days 3 days	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	85/285		9 February 1885	F.H. Noon
10	11 February 1885	Arthur William Parker Eliza Jane Wilson	Arthur William Parker Eliza Jane Wilson 💍 1885/305	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	27 21	Springvale Wanganui	9 months 4 years	In the residence of S.S. Wilson, London St, Wanganui	85/275		11 February 1885	William Tinsley
11	18 February 1885	Robert John Hamilton-Burns Eliza Jane Austin	Robert John Burlton-Bennet Eliza Jane Austin 💍 1885/276	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	20 22	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days 22 years	In the Church of England, Wanganui	85/289		19 February 1885	F.H. Noon
12	19 February 1885	George Hobbs Amelia Bryant	George Hobbs Amelia Bryant 💍 1885/291	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 18	Wanganui Wanganui	10 years 4 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	85/290		19 February 1885	F.H. Noon
13	20 February 1885	Charles Edmond Holton Ellen Lucy Allen	Charles Edward Hylton Ellen Lucy Allen 💍 1885/306	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 33	Wanganui Wanganui	2 years 3 years	In the Wesleyan Church, Wanganui	85/276		20 February 1885	William Tinsley

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).