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 1329

District of Wairau 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
40	8 October 1886	William Herman Louisa Jane Bremner	William Herman Louisa Jane Bremner 💍 1886/2992	Bachelor Spinster	Lightrope performer Dressmaker	24 years 21	Renwick Town Renwick Town	One month 21 years	The office of the Registrar of Marriages Blenheim	86/2940		8 October 1886	The Registrar of Marriages Blenheim
41	25 October 1886	Thomas Brimer Sarah Ann Gibbons	Thomas Brimer Sarah Ann Gibbins 💍 1886/3003	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic Servant	23 22	Blenheim Blenheim	about 18 months 12 months	The office of the Registrar of Marriages Blenheim	86/2941		25 October 1886	The Registrar of Marriages Blenheim
42	27 October 1886	Archibald McCallum Ellen Linton	Archibald McCallum Ellen Linton 💍 1886/2983	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 28	Blenheim Blenheim	26 years 28 years	The House of Mr Templeton, Weld Street, Blenheim	86/2968		27 October 1886	Revd G. K. Stowell
43	8 November 1886	Charles David Simms Eliza Clara Onion	Charles Davis Timms Eliza Clara Onion 💍 1886/3012	Bachelor Spinster	Station Hand Domestic Servant	25 19	Wairau Valley Wairau Valley	25 19	The Residence of the Revd Mr J. Lewis, Maxwell Road, Blenheim	86/2994	Edmund Onion, Father	8 November 1886	Revd Paul Aubry
44	26 November 1886	William Eves Mary Byron	William Eves May Byron 💍 1886/3013	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer Domestic Servant	31 22	Bells Farm, Renwick Road Wairau Accommodation House	31 35	The Roman Catholic Church Blenheim	86/2995		26 November 1886	Revd H. J. Lewis
45	26 November 1886	Frederick William Eyles Jane Hudson Melicen Clarke	Frederick William Eyles Jane Hudson Melicen Clarke 💍 1886/3010	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker	21 about 19 years	Opawa Terrace High Street, Blenheim	8 10 months	The office of the Registrar of Marriages Blenheim	86/2992	Thomas Hudson Clarke, Father	26 November 1886	The Registrar of Marriages Blenheim
46	29 December 1886	Robert McFarlane Mary Goodman	Robert McFarlane Mary Goodman 💍 1887/2065	Bachelor Spinster	Upholsterer Domestic Servant	24 Years 24 years	Blenheim Blenheim	3 3	The House of Mr & Mrs Goodman, Redwood Street, Blenheim	87/486		29 December 1886	The Revd Mr O. Robb
47	29 December 1886	Joseph Bartlett Flora Bremner	Joseph Bartlett Flora Bremner 💍 1886/3011	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Dressmaker	22 Years 21	Kaituna Blenheim	about 19 years 4	The office of the Registrar of Marriages Blenheim	86/2993		29 December 1886	The Registrar of Marriages Blenheim

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).