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 499

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 30 June 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
18	12 April 1886	Wilhelm Gernichkar Henrietta Hankin	Wilhelm Gernschkat Henrietta Hanker 💍 1886/1247	Widower Spinster	Farmer	31 18	Wanganui Wanganui	1 week 8 years	In the Wesleyan Church, Wanganui	86/1139		12 April 1886	William Tinsley, Wesleyan
19	12 April 1886	Wilhelm Christian Baack Adolphi Henrietta Kort		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 21	Wanganui Wanganui	5 days 4 days	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	86/1135		12 April 1886	J. W. Woon, Registrar
20	14 April 1886	Thomas Bunting Edith Robinson	Thomas Bunting Edith Robinson 💍 1886/1253 Thomas Frethey Ann Robinson 💍 1886/2135	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 17	Maxwelltown Maxwelltown	13 years 2 months	In the residence of Mr. George & John Bunting, Maxwelltown	86/1145	George & John Bunting, fathers	14 April 1886	J. Cameron, Church of England
21	19 April 1886	Robert Walker Fanny Kendall	Robert Walker Fanny Kendall 💍 1886/1252	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 19	Aramoho Aramoho	25 years 7 years	In the Matarawa English Church	86/1144		19 April 1886	J. Cameron, Church of England
22	19 April 1886	Michael Leadon Emphana Prider		Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22 19	Maxwelltown Wanganui	12 years 12 years	In the Church of England, Wanganui	86/1146		19 April 1886	E. L. Tudor, Church of England
23	22 April 1886	Leonard Brais Annie Clarke	Leonard Craig Annie Clarke 💍 1886/1268	Bachelor Widow	Clerk	21 24	Wanganui Wanganui	2 months 10 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	86/1136		22 April 1886	J. W. Woon, Registrar
24	27 April 1886	Arthur Hawkes Jane Allan	Alfred Parkes Jean Allan 💍 1886/1264	Bachelor Widow	Engineer Cleaner	21 27	Aramoho Aramoho	2 months 2 years	In the residence of James Treadwell	86/1132		27 April 1886	James Treadwell, Presbyterian
25	5 May 1886	David Hoppis Eleanor Broge	David Higgie Eleanor Tozer 💍 1886/1245	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 19	R. O. 3 Line Wanganui	34 years 2 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	86/1137		5 May 1886	J. W. Woon, Registrar
26	8 May 1886	Charles Henry Thomas Jones Mary Ann Smidt	Charles Henry Thomas Jones Mary Ann Smidt 💍 1886/1256	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	23 21	Taylorville Wanganui	15 months 10 years	In the English Church, Putiki	86/1147		8 May 1886	A. O. Williams, 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).