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 653

District of Ellesmere Quarter ending 30 June 1886 Registrar M. [illegible]

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

4 April 1886

Thomas Blay
Anna Caseby

Thomas Blay
Anna Caseby
💍 1886/1609

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

20
22

Leeston
Leeston

4 days
6 weeks

at the Wesleyan Chapel at Irwell

86/1544

Thomas Blay Father

9 April 1886

Rev. S. A. Standage, Wesleyan, of Leeston

No	4
Date of Notice	4 April 1886
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Blay	Anna Caseby
	💍 1886/1609
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	20	22
Dwelling Place	Leeston	Leeston
Length of Residence	4 days	6 weeks
Marriage Place	at the Wesleyan Chapel at Irwell
Folio	86/1544
Consent	Thomas Blay Father
Date of Certificate	9 April 1886
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. A. Standage, Wesleyan, of Leeston

5 May 1886

Patrick Dugan
Ellen Sugrue

Patrick Duggan
Ellen Sugrue
💍 1886/1606

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

40
23

Southbridge
Doyleston

10 years
1 year

at the Roman Catholic Chapel at Southbridge

86/1541

5 May 1886

Rev. H. Chervier, Roman Catholic, Lincoln

No	5
Date of Notice	5 May 1886
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Dugan	Ellen Sugrue
BDM Match (96%)	Patrick Duggan	Ellen Sugrue
	💍 1886/1606
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	40	23
Dwelling Place	Southbridge	Doyleston
Length of Residence	10 years	1 year
Marriage Place	at the Roman Catholic Chapel at Southbridge
Folio	86/1541
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 May 1886
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. Chervier, Roman Catholic, Lincoln

6 May 1886

Samuel Moore
Sarah Ann Grant

Samuel Moore
Sarah Ann Grant
💍 1886/1611

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

35
19

Southbridge
Southbridge

2 years
9 years

at the house of Mr. George Grant near Southbridge

86/1545

George Grant (Father)

17 May 1886

Rev. S. A. Standage, Wesleyan, of Leeston

No	6
Date of Notice	6 May 1886
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Moore	Sarah Ann Grant
	💍 1886/1611
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	35	19
Dwelling Place	Southbridge	Southbridge
Length of Residence	2 years	9 years
Marriage Place	at the house of Mr. George Grant near Southbridge
Folio	86/1545
Consent	George Grant (Father)
Date of Certificate	17 May 1886
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. A. Standage, Wesleyan, of Leeston

7 May 1886

Charles Pool
Agnes Huston

Charles Pool
Agnes Huston
💍 1886/1613

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

24
23

Southbridge
Southbridge

4 days
4 years

at the house of Mr. William Huston near Southbridge

86/1547

12 May 1886

Revd. William West, Presbyterian, of Southbridge

No	7
Date of Notice	7 May 1886
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Pool	Agnes Huston
	💍 1886/1613
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Southbridge	Southbridge
Length of Residence	4 days	4 years
Marriage Place	at the house of Mr. William Huston near Southbridge
Folio	86/1547
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 May 1886
Officiating Minister	Revd. William West, Presbyterian, of Southbridge

8 May 1886

Samuel Pearce
Ann Jane Gilbert

Samuel Pearce
Anne Jane Gilbert
💍 1886/1616

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

31
20

Doyleston
Dunsandel

2 years
12 years

at the Church of England at Southbridge

86/1550

John Gilbert (Father)

18 May 1886

Revd. Staples Hamilton, Church of England, of Leeston

No	8
Date of Notice	8 May 1886
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Pearce	Ann Jane Gilbert
BDM Match (97%)	Samuel Pearce	Anne Jane Gilbert
	💍 1886/1616
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	31	20
Dwelling Place	Doyleston	Dunsandel
Length of Residence	2 years	12 years
Marriage Place	at the Church of England at Southbridge
Folio	86/1550
Consent	John Gilbert (Father)
Date of Certificate	18 May 1886
Officiating Minister	Revd. Staples Hamilton, Church of England, of Leeston

9 May 1886

Constantino Georgio Torna
Margaret Thompson

Constantino Georgio Toma
Margaret Thompson
💍 1886/1608

Bachelor
Spinster

Fisherman

40
21

Southbridge
Southbridge

1 year
8 months

at the Office of the Registrar of Marriages at Leeston

86/1543

20 May 1886

The Registrar of Marriages at Leeston, Ellesmere

No	9
Date of Notice	9 May 1886
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Constantino Georgio Torna	Margaret Thompson
BDM Match (96%)	Constantino Georgio Toma	Margaret Thompson
	💍 1886/1608
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fisherman
Age	40	21
Dwelling Place	Southbridge	Southbridge
Length of Residence	1 year	8 months
Marriage Place	at the Office of the Registrar of Marriages at Leeston
Folio	86/1543
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 May 1886
Officiating Minister	The Registrar of Marriages at Leeston, Ellesmere

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 1908. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).