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 1431

District of Timaru 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
146	13 November 1886	Francis O. Brien Annie Dempsey	Francis O'Brien Anne Dempsey 💍 1886/3219	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	44 28	Waihao Waihao	3 days 3 days	Roman Catholic Church	86/3206		30 November 1886	Rev James Daly Roman Catholic Church
147	1 December 1886	George Taylor Alice Williamson	George Taylor Alice Williamson 💍 1886/3487	Widower Spinster	Gardener	50 40	Timaru St Andrews	15 years 14 days	Dwelling house of Mr Blair	86/3192		1 December 1886	Rev S. C. Brady Church of England
148	4 December 1886	George Hosie Annie Callow	George Hosie Annie Catton 💍 1886/3210	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 20	Pareora Saudie Lawson, Timaru	3 1/2 years 20 years	Dwelling house of Mr Callow, Wilson Street	86/3202	William Callow, father	6 December 1886	Rev Mr Gillies Presbyterian
149	13 December 1886	Hugh Toneycliffe Mary Ann Morrison	Hugh Toneycliffe Mary Ann Morrison 💍 1886/3216	Bachelor Spinster	Foreman in saw Mill	26 21	Timaru Timaru	11 years 7 years	Dwelling house of Hugh Toneycliffe, Buchanan's Paddock	86/3203		13 December 1886	Rev R. G. Williams Congregational
150	15 December 1886	Patrick O. Brien Mary Goodwin	Patrick OBrien Mary Goodwin 💍 1886/3489	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 21	Timaru Timaru	12 months 2 years	Roman Catholic Church	86/3207		15 December 1886	Rev James Daly Roman Catholic
151	21 December 1886	Anthony Adrian Smith Jeanie Stewart Gellatly	Anthony Adrian Smith Jeannie Stewart Gellatly 💍 1886/3185	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	32 29	Timaru Timaru	18 months 2 years	Dwelling house of Anthony A. Smith, Gravelsham	86/3194		21 December 1886	Rev Mr Gellies Presbyterian
152	29 December 1886	Walter Mellier Lizzie Shave	Walter Hellier Lizzie Shave 💍 1886/3486	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Labourer	26 26	St Andrews St Andrews	7 years 12 years	English Church	86/3190		29 December 1886	Rev L. C. Brady 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).