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 1013

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 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
315	22 September 1886	George Henry Baker Agnes Smith	George Henry Smith Agnes Amy Ashton 💍 1886/3073	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Painter	21 18	Christchurch Christchurch	21 years 18 years	Registrars Office	86/13069	Sampson Cestaton Father	22 September 1886	J. M. Macfarlane Registrar of Marriages
316	22 September 1886	Henry Thompson Ellen	Henry Thompson Ellen Laura Wyatt 💍 1886/2302	Bachelor Spinster	Bookbinder	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	21 years 21 years	Registrars Office	86/12273	Laura Wyatt Spinster	22 September 1886	J. M. Macfarlane Registrar of Marriages
317	23 September 1886	John Reynolds Sarah	John Reynolds Sarah Maria Ward 💍 1886/3428	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 23	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 5 years	St Johns Church	86/15491	Maria Ward Spinster	23 September 1886	Rev H. C. M. Watson Church of England
318	24 September 1886	James Robinson Annie Corcoran	James Robinson Annie Carcoran 💍 1886/3435	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	33 24	Christchurch Christchurch	9 years 9 years	Roman Catholic Church	86/13475		24 September 1886	Rev L. M. Guiaty Roman Catholic
319	25 September 1886	William Young Mary	William Young Mary Ann Bennett 💍 1886/3174	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 25	Christchurch Greenpark	2 months 2 months	Church	86/13154	Ann Bennett Spinster	25 September 1886	Rev A. R. B. Gossage Church of England
320	25 September 1886	Stephen Wills Susan	Stephen Wills Susan Simpson Barr 💍 1886/3115	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	35 22	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 years	House of Mr. Martin	86/13115	Simpson Barr Spinster	25 September 1886	Rev J. R. Corsin Presbyterian
321	28 September 1886	Duncan Hill Your Child		Widower Bachelor	Machinist Blacksmith	20 23	Christchurch Christchurch	12 years 12 years	St Marys Church Addington	86/13111	William Hill Father	28 September 1886	Rev H. Post Church of England
322	28 September 1886	Alfred Dodge Ellen Veitels	Alfred Dodge Eliza Veitch 💍 1886/2303	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Servant	29 28	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 20 years	Registrars Office	86/12274		28 September 1886	J. M. Macfarlane Registrar of Marriages

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).