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 658

District of Geraldine 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
310	29 April 1886	Charles Banks Cameron Ellen Ruth Harwood	Charles Banks Cameron Eileen Ruth Harwood 💍 1886/1632	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 25	Geraldine Winchester Flat	1 month 1 week	Registrar's Office	86/1568		29 April 1886	Deputy Registrar
311	30 April 1886	William Charles Benbow Edith Stringer	William Charles Benbow Edith Stringer 💍 1886/1633	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 20	Pleasant Valley Geraldine	3 days 12 years	The House of Mr. Edwin Stringer, Pleasant Valley Road	86/1569	Edwin Stringer, Father	30 April 1886	Rev. Jesse Borthwick, Primitive Methodist
312	1 May 1886	Thomas Eaton Annie Louise	Thomas Eaton Annie Lonie 💍 1886/1631	Widower Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	39 29	Woodbury Woodbury	2 years 5 weeks	Registrar's Office, Geraldine	86/1567		1 May 1886	Deputy Registrar
313	5 May 1886	William Fitzpatrick Catherine Newton	William Fitzpatrick Catherine Menton 💍 1886/3382	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 21	Orari Geraldine	7 years 2 years	Roman Catholic Church, Geraldine	86/3420		5 May 1886	Rev. Thomas Keane, Roman Catholic
314	7 May 1886	John Hay Annie Evans	John Hay Annie Evans 💍 1886/1634 Robert Hyde Mace Annie Evans 💍 1887/2521	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Dressmaker	39 30	Geraldine Geraldine	10 years 4 years	The House of Rev. George Barclay, Geraldine Road	86/1570		7 May 1886	Rev. George Barclay (Presbyterian)
315	18 May 1886	George Brooker Margaret Davidson Chiverson	Geo Booker Margt Dawson Chiverson 💍 1886/1636	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	23 17	Geraldine Geraldine	3 days 2 years	The House of Mr. George Barclay, Geraldine Road	86/1571	Benjamin Chiverson, Father	18 May 1886	Rev. George Barclay (Presbyterian)
316	7 June 1886	Edward Lee England Mary Jane Rachel Tatam	Edward Lee England Mary Jane Rachel Tatam 💍 1886/1630	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	35 17	Pleasant Valley Pleasant Valley	8 weeks 8 weeks	St. Mary's Church, Pleasant Valley	86/1566	Charles Tatam, Father	7 June 1886	Rev. James Preston, 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).