Intentions to Marry, 1886

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840398, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 14 2025

Page 111

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 31 March 1886

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1	11 January 1886	Alfred King Harlock Mary Ann Johnson	Alfred King Harlock Mary Ann Johnson 💍 1886/394	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	45 40	Wanganui Wanganui	6 days 5 days	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	86/1264	11 January 1886	F. W. Wood, Registrar
2	18 January 1886	Thomas Mitchell Ellen Horsem Ramsay	Thomas Mitchell Ellen Florence Ramsay 💍 1886/393	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Teacher	28 23	Wanganui Wanganui	5 days 18 years	At the residence of H. R. James, Anderson Street, Hill Street, Wanganui	86/1263	18 January 1886	Lewis Shackelford, Baptist
3	18 January 1886	Fred Parten Ellen Orsman	Fred Sarten Ellen Orsman 💍 1886/432	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	28 29	Wanganui Wanganui	7 years 18 months	In the Church of England, Wanganui	86/1265	18 January 1886	F. L. Tudor, Church of England
4	21 January 1886	David Ross Sophia Hall	David Ross Sophia Hall 💍 1886/395	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	34 32	Wanganui Wanganui	1 month 2 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	86/1266	21 January 1886	A. R. Thomson, Deputy Registrar
5	28 January 1886	Murdoch Conacher McIvor Margaret McKinnon	Murdoch Conacher McIvor Margaret McKinnon 💍 1886/401	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep farmer	25 19	Upokongaro Wanganui	6 months 19 years	In the residence of Mr. H. McKinoon, Wilson Street, Wanganui	86/1267	28 January 1886	James Treadwell, Presbyterian
6	1 February 1886	John Love Elizabeth Stewart	John Love Elizabeth Stewart 💍 1886/396	Widower Spinster	Butcher	33 25	Wanganui Wanganui	5 years 25 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	86/1268	1 February 1886	A. R. Thomson, Deputy Registrar
7	11 February 1886	William James Batten Bessie Edwards	William James Butler Bessie Edwards 💍 1886/1317	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	27 26	Wanganui Wanganui	2 months 14 days	In the Church of England, Palmerston North	86/1295	11 February 1886	F. Coppinger, Church of England
8	16 February 1886	Charles Sweeney Rose Ann Scully	Charles Sweeney Rose Ann Scally 💍 1886/405 Charles Swinerd Rose Ann Barrett 💍 1886/2400 Charles Hornby Rose Anna Fear 💍 1886/571	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 19	Wanganui Wanganui	23 years 6 years	In the Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui	86/1274	16 February 1886	C. H. Kirk, Roman Catholic
9	8 March 1886	Thomas Cathro Annie Murray	Thomas Cathro Annie Murray 💍 1886/402	Widower Widow	Bookmaker	52 41	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days 10 years	In the residence of Mr. A. Johnston, Victoria Avenue, Wanganui	86/1277	8 March 1886	James Treadwell, Presbyterian

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).