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 627

District of Christchurch 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
120	10 April 1886	James Corbett Sarah	James Corbett Sarah Jane Lavery 💍 1886/1491	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	40 19	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 1 month	Presbyterian Manse	86/1398		10 April 1886	Rev R. J. Porter
121	12 April 1886	Jane Lavery Jessie Crump	Alexander Gillespie Jessie Crump 💍 1886/1501	Spinster Spinster		19 22	Springston Springston	22 years 22 years	St. Michael's Church	86/1409	Hugh Lavery, Father	12 April 1886	Rev W. Harper
122	12 April 1886	Alexander Gillespie William Alfred Hewitt		Bachelor Bachelor	Farmer Mechanic	21 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 4 years	House of Thos. Lang, Cashel Road, Kaiapoi	86/1389		12 April 1886	Rev R. McGregor
123	12 April 1886	Michele Caere Mary		Bachelor Spinster	Fisherman Weaver	32 32	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	2 years 2 years	Registrar's Office	86/1401	No person having authority to consent	12 April 1886
124	13 April 1886	John Wright Mary Johnson	Alfred Leggett Mary Johnson 💍 1887/2725	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	25 19	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 1 month	House of Rev J. Aldred	86/1455	To consent	13 April 1886	Rev J. Aldred
125	13 April 1886	Edwin Rowland Florence Greenness		Bachelor Spinster	Auctioneer Servant	38 26	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 13 years	St. Luke's Church	86/1475		13 April 1886	Ven: Arch: Lingard
126	13 April 1886	Thomas William Ambrose Mary Sloane	Thomas William Ambrose Mary Sloan Lusk 💍 1886/1558	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	30 27	Christchurch Christchurch	25 years 21 years	Presbyterian Church	86/1492		13 April 1886	Rev J. R. Cairns
127	14 April 1886	Robert Edwin Hoddart Emma Jane Bartram	Robert Edwin Stoddart Emma Jane Bartram 💍 1886/1547	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 19	Christchurch Lincoln	4 days 4 days	Wesleyan Church	86/1459	David M. Bartram, Father	14 April 1886	Rev W. R. Toss will
128	14 April 1886	Francis Henry McKinley Caroline Heath	Francis Henry McGuiley Caroline Heath 💍 1886/1550	Bachelor Widow	Clicker	26 34	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 1 year	House of Wm. Heath	86/1484	George Heath, Father	14 April 1886	Rev G. Bond

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).