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 1402

District of Christchurch 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
381	11 November 1886	John Edmund Proctor Runna Holmes	John Edmond Proctor Rose Emma Holmes 💍 1886/3145	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 5 days	House of Alexander Proctor, Christchurch	86/3124		11 November 1886	Rev. J. Lewis, Wesleyan
382	11 November 1886	William Greenhow Elizabeth Haston	William Greenbow Elizabeth Hayton 💍 1886/3438 William Alderson Elizabeth Oates 💍 1887/2560 William Wright Elizabeth McCaldon 💍 1886/1566 William McConnell Elizabeth Fulton 💍 1886/3421 William Smith Elizabeth Cameron 💍 1886/557 William Thompson Elizabeth Hooper 💍 1886/2091 William Frizzell Elizabeth Marshall 💍 1886/2316 William Barnes Elizabeth Coulter 💍 1886/1740 William Smith Elizabeth Tankard 💍 1886/444	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	26 26	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 26 years	St. Peters Church, Christchurch	86/3495		11 November 1886	Rev. C. Bowen, Church of England
383	11 November 1886	John Williams Catherine Forbes Augustus	John Williams Catherine Forbes Angus 💍 1886/3138 John Williams Elizabeth Bufton 💍 1886/796	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer Machinist	22 20	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 10 years	House of William Augustus	86/3138	William Augustus, father	11 November 1886	Rev. W. Reall, Wesleyan
384	11 November 1886	John Solway Lucy Haines	John Solway Lucy Haines 💍 1886/3340	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 19	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	House of James Cotton, Oxford Terrace	86/3400	Ruth Haines, mother	11 November 1886	Rev. J. Huskie, Presbyterian
385	12 November 1886	Joseph Andrew Ridd Nellie Comber	Joseph Andrew Kidd Nellie Coombe 💍 1886/3133	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 3 years	St. Mary's Church, Addington	86/3112		12 November 1886	Rev. H. East, Church of England
386	12 November 1886	Robert Augustus Alderton Alice Edith Box	Robert Augustus Anderson Alice Edith Box 💍 1886/3071	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Governess	33 23	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 6 days	House of Wm. a Box, Macamore	86/3064		12 November 1886	Rev. F. Dolamore, Baptist
387	12 November 1886	Patrick McDonnell Charlotte McCauley	Patrick McDonnell Charlotte McCanley 💍 1886/3418	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	33 27	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years 6 years	Roman Catholic Church	86/3482		12 November 1886	Rev. L. McGuity, Roman Catholic
388	13 November 1886	Joseph Smith Margaret Clapham	Joseph Smith Margaret Clephane 💍 1886/3146 John Smith Margaret Gollar 💍 1886/2377	Widower Spinster	Carpenter	55 54	Christchurch Christchurch	2 months 2 months	House of Rev. R. Brown, Paparua	86/3145		13 November 1886	Rev. R. Brown, Presbyterian

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).