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 657

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 30 June 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
460	29 May 1886	John Okane Annie Reddon	John O'Kane Annie Reddan 💍 1886/1644	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	31 years 28 years	Hampstead Ashburton	9 years 2 years	Roman Catholic Church Ashburton	86/1566		29 May 1886	Revd. Stephen Chastagnon
461	29 May 1886	Henry Greenaway Sarah Ellen Hickman	Henry Greenaway Sarah Ellen Hickman 💍 1886/1628	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Domestic Servant	25 years 22 years	Ashburton Upper Ashburton	12 years 8 years	Private Dwellinghouse of Thomas Hickman	86/1564		29 May 1886	Revd. D. McNicoll
462	1 June 1886	Henry James Crawley Jessie Pollock	Henry James Crawley Jessie Pollock 💍 1886/1742	Bachelor Spinster	Bottler	31 years 21 years	Ashburton Dunedin	1 month 2 months	Presbyterian Manse Dunedin	86/1658		1 June 1886	Revd. James Gibbs
463	5 June 1886	James Ebenezer Incorr Mary Elizabeth John	James Ebenezer Trevor Mary Elizabeth John 💍 1886/1627	Widower Spinster	Surgeon	52 years 32 years	Ashburton Ashburton	13 years 13 years	Private Dwellinghouse of David Thomas	86/1562		5 June 1886	Revd. A. M. Beattie
464	7 June 1886	Tom Pitt Mary Jane Black Wilson	Tom Pitt Mary Jane Black Wilson 💍 1886/1626	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 years 21 years	Seaview Seaview	3 years 7 years	Private Dwellinghouse of Thomas Wilson	86/1561		7 June 1886	Revd. A. M. Beattie
465	19 June 1886	George Quartermain Annie Robertson	George Quartermain Annie Robertson 💍 1886/1591	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	32 years 26 years	Tinwald Russell's Flat	2 months 10 years	Private Dwellinghouse of George Robertson			June 1886
466	21 June 1886	John Doiman Elizabeth Jackson	John Drinnan Elizabeth Jackson 💍 1886/1370	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 years 23 years	Ashburton Ealing	4 years 9 years	Presbyterian Manse Ashburton	86/1563		23 June 1886	Revd. A. M. Beattie
467	26 June 1886	James King Amy Fagan	James King Amy Ada Fagan 💍 1886/1645	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer Domestic Servant	25 years 17 years	Alford Forest Alford Forest	6 Weeks 4 years	The Schoolroom Alford Forest	86/1557	Michael Fagan, Father	28 June 1886	Revd. R. Garbett

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).