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 175

District of Wairau 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1	1 January 1886	John Register Minnie Lowney	John Register Minnie Louney 💍 1886/603	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	33 years 25	Blenheim Blenheim	18 years 3 years	The Roman Catholic Church, Blenheim	86/451		1 January 1886	Revd. John Lane
2	5 January 1886	Thomas Young Jessie Maude Bevau	Thomas Young Jessie Maude Bevan 💍 1886/600	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	23 18	Blenheim Blenheim	4 days 5 years	The House of Mr. W. H. Laundon, High Street, Blenheim	86/448	Mary Annie Houghton, mother	5 January 1886	Revd. W. O. Robb
3	13 January 1886	John Hyland Ellen Ryan	John Hyland Ellen Ryan 💍 1886/598 John Lillis Ellen Ryan 💍 1887/2467	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer Milliner	23 19	Blenheim Blenheim	7 months 13 years	The Roman Catholic Church, Blenheim	86/446	Cornelius Ryan, father	13 January 1886	Revd. John Lane
4	25 January 1886	Thomas Gleeson Annie Watson	Thomas Gleeson Annie Watson 💍 1886/580	Bachelor Spinster	Station Hand	24 19	Renwick Town Renwick Town	7 years About 15 years	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim	86/444	Sidney Watson, father	25 January 1886	The Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim
5	17 February 1886	Joseph Frederick Ledden Eliza Jane Jellyman	Joseph Frederick Fedden Eliza Jane Jellyman 💍 1886/578	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	32 33	Blenheim Blenheim	2 1/2 years About 5 years	The Presbyterian Church, Blenheim	86/442		17 February 1886	Revd. W. O. Robb
6	4 March 1886	Frederick William Charles Nees, junior Kate Cameron	Frederick William Charles Nees Junr Kate Cameron 💍 1886/579	Bachelor Spinster	Millwright and Engineer	25 22	Okaramio Flatlands Okaramio, Kaituna	12 months 22 years	The House of Mr. John Cameron, Kaituna	86/443		4 March 1886	Revd. G. K. Stowell
7	6 March 1886	John Collett Clara Henderson	John Collett Clara Henderson 💍 1886/591	Bachelor Spinster	Jockey Domestic Servant	23 16	Southleton Hotel, Blenheim Grose Road, Blenheim	5 years 16 years	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim	86/445	Andrew Henderson, father	6 March 1886	Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim
8	8 March 1886	Christopher Lettbridge Goodman Elizabeth Howard	Christopher Lethbridge Goodman Elizabeth Howard 💍 1886/599	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 22	St. Clair, Renwick Town Road Alfred Street, Blenheim	3/14 years 22 years	The Church of the Nativity, Blenheim	86/447		8 March 1886	Revd. Archd. Butt
9	13 March 1886	Hugh Campbell Ellen Agnes Wemyss	Hugh Campbell Ellen Agnes Wemyss 💍 1886/601	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	33 26	Blenheim Grose Road, Blenheim	25 years About 20 years	The House of Mr. David Wemyss, Grose Road, Blenheim	86/449		13 March 1886	Revd. W. O. Robb
10	30 March 1886	George Cleghorn Annie Browning	George Cleghorn Annie Browning 💍 1886/1437	Widower Spinster	Surgeon	35 24	Blenheim Blenheim	10 years 1 week	The Church of the Nativity, Blenheim	86/1320		30 March 1886	Revd. Archd. Butt

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).