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 269

District of Timaru 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
85	22 February 1886	John Robert Hammond Sarah Anne Bayne	John Hammond Sarah Anne Byrne 💍 1886/778	Bachelor Spinster	Express driver	29 21	Timaru Timaru	7 yrs 8 yrs	Dwelling house of Thomas Bayne	86/666		23 February 1886	James Foley, Roman Catholic
86	27 February 1886	William Walter Wood Julia Winifredy Smith	William Walter Wood Julia Winnifred Smith 💍 1886/749	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	28 18	Albury Albury	11 yrs 10 yrs	Dwelling house of Albert Smith	86/647	Albert Smith, Father	27 February 1886	J. Jasper Smythe, Church of England
87	6 March 1886	William John Toger Ellen Schrader	William John Tozer Ellen Schrader 💍 1886/792	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 21	Pleasant Point Pleasant Point	8 yrs 3 yrs	Registrars Office Timaru	86/656		6 March 1886	Registrar of Marriage Timaru
88	8 March 1886	John Frederick Matthew Waldon Elizabeth Mary Johnson	John Frederick Matthew Waldon Elizabeth Mary Johnson 💍 1886/790	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	36 23	Timaru Timaru	2 yrs 2 yrs	Registrars Office Timaru	86/657		8 March 1886	Registrar of Marriage Timaru
89	10 March 1886	Edward Pratt Mary Ann Blanchett	Edward Pratt Mary Ann Blanchett 💍 1886/791	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser	26 20	Timaru Timaru	11 Months 20 yrs	Registrars Office Timaru	86/658	Augustus Ferdinand Blanchett, Father	10 March 1886	Registrar of Marriage Timaru
90	10 March 1886	Arthur William Sellars Mary Ann Walker	Arthur William Sellars Mary Ann Walker 💍 1886/795	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	31 21	Timaru Timaru	11 yrs 4 yrs	Dwelling house of Arthur William Sellars, Russell Square Timaru	86/659	William Gillies, Presbyterian	10 March 1886	Wm. Gillies, Presbyterian
91	16 March 1886	Samuel Hopkins Mary Annand	Samuel Hopkins May Annand 💍 1886/772	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	33 22	St. Andrews Timaru	11 yrs 4 yrs	Dwelling house of David Annand	86/660	Wm. Gillies, Presbyterian	16 March 1886	Wm. Gillies, 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).