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 1291

District of Masterton Quarter ending 31 December 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
36	4 October 1886	Charles Frederick Worth Jane Marie Rees	Charles Frederick Worth Jane Marie Rees 💍 1886/2927	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Machinist	23 21	Masterton Masterton	3 years 6 years	House of Mr Frederick Worth, Bentley St Masterton	86/12911		4 October 1886	Rev. J. N. Buttle, Wesleyan
37	11 October 1886	Lars Peter Halberg Betty Neksina Hansen	Lars Peter Hallberq Betty Nelsina Hansen 💍 1886/2925	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker	29 18	Mauriceville Mauriceville	3 years 14 years	Lutheran Church	86/12909	Hans Hansen, father	11 October 1886	Rev. George E. Sass, Lutheran
38	11 October 1886	Alfred George Took Emma Froom	Alfred George Toop Emma Coom 💍 1886/2872	Bachelor Spinster	Upholsterer Tailoress	22 21	Masterton Wellington	3 weeks 4 months	House of Mr Austin Froom, Plymouth Terrace St Wellington	86/2856		12 October 1886	Samuel Costell, Baptist
39	21 October 1886	Alexander Falls Ellen Jones	Alexander Falls Ellen Jones 💍 1886/2932	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 21	Mauriceville Mauriceville	3 days 7 months	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Y M C A Masterton	86/2915		21 October 1886	John Bagge, Registrar
40	11 November 1886	George Binion Cooper Maria Andrew	George Binion Cooper Maria Andrew 💍 1886/2931	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	35 25	Masterton Masterton	18 months 6 months	House of Mr Alexander Brown, Dixon St Masterton	86/12914		11 November 1886	Rev. David Fulton, Presbyterian
41	23 November 1886	Thomas Joseph Clapham Agnes Yates	Thomas Joseph Clapham Agnes Yates 💍 1886/2924	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	28 21	Masterton Masterton	3 days 13 years	Church of England	86/12908		23 November 1886	Rev. W. E. Paige, Church of England
42	13 December 1886	Alfred James Minifie Mary Curtis	Alfred James Minifie Mary Curtis 💍 1886/2929	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	22 21	Masterton Upper Main Masterton	5 years 8 years	House of Mr James Gordon, Upper Main Masterton	86/12912		13 December 1886	Rev. J. N. Buttle, Wesleyan
43	20 December 1886	Jens Enevold Kjestrup Johanna Assersen	Jens Eneauld Kjestrup Johana Assersen 💍 1886/2926	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 18	Mauriceville Mauriceville	2 years 10 years	Wesleyan Church	86/12910	Nils Assersen, father	20 December 1886	Rev. Other Christoffersen, Wesleyan
44	24 December 1886	Nils Nelson Kate Sullivan	Nils Nelson Kate Sullivan 💍 1886/2930	Bachelor Spinster	Settler School Teacher	22 24	Mauriceville Mauriceville	10 years 3 years	Roman Catholic Chapel	86/12913		24 December 1886	Rev. Patrick Tracey, Roman Catholic

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).