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 237

District of Christchurch 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
16	14 January 1886	Frederick Schumacher Elizabeth Coleman	Frederick Schumacher Elizabeth Coleman 💍 1886/718	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Servant	22 19	Papanui St. Albans	22 years 19 years	St. Matthews Church	86/1017	Robert Coleman, Father	14 January 1886	Rev. W. R. Gillam, Church of England
17	15 January 1886	Hugh Clerk Barrie Elizabeth Morse	Hugh Clark Barrie Elizabeth Morse 💍 1886/3456	Bachelor Spinster	Asst. Publisher	19 18	Sydenham Sydenham	19 years 18 years	House of William Howard, Coleridge Street	86/541	Thomas Morse, Father	15 January 1886	Rev. W. Keall, Wesleyan
18	16 January 1886	Walter John Bowden Radford Isabella Walker	Walter John Bowden Radford Isabella Walker 💍 1886/668	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Clerk Servant	26 23	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 23 years	House of Wm. Walker, Ward Street	86/542		16 January 1886	Rev. J. R. Cairns, Presbyterian
19	16 January 1886	George Barty Annie Jacobs	George Barty Annie Jacobs 💍 1886/702	Bachelor Spinster	Dealer Servant	31 35	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 10 years	Registrar's Office	86/575		16 January 1886	Registrar, Marriage
20	16 January 1886	Henry Taylor Aders Jane Hoodless	Henry Taylor Akers Jane Hookham 💍 1886/682	Bachelor Spinster	Wine Merchant	39 30	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 22 years	St. Paul's Church, Papanui	86/532		16 January 1886	Rev. I. Chefferfield, Church of England
21	16 January 1886	Ernest Harold Wesley Bertha Butler	Ernest Harold Withey Bertha Butler 💍 1886/3410	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	26 24	Linwood Linwood	3 months 3 months	St. John's Church	86/13448		16 January 1886	Rev. C. Wright, Church of England
22	18 January 1886	Charles Barritt Mary Ann Millbank	Charles Barritt Mary Anne Millham 💍 1886/82	Bachelor Spinster	Bootcutter Servant	32 21	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 1 year	Registrar's Office	86/548		18 January 1886	Registrar, Marriages
23	18 January 1886	Edward Henry Hughes Hannah Hicks	Edward Henry Hughes Grace Hannah Hicks 💍 1886/696	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	28 25	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 25 years	St. Paul's Church, Papanui	86/552		18 January 1886	Rev. G. J. Cholmondeley, Church of England

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).