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 643

District of Christchurch 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
228	23 June 1886	James Grant Margaret Smith	James Grant Margaret Smith 💍 1886/153 Henry George Hunt Margaret Smith 💍 1886/1693 Tom Brown Margaret Smith 💍 1887/2757 Adam Johnston Margaret Smith 💍 1886/967	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 19	Spreydon Christchurch	9 years 10 years	Registrars Office	86/1445	Thomas Smith, Father	23 June 1886	Registrar Marriages J. M. Ollivier
229	22 June 1886	Charles Vere Hodge Margaret Pratt	Charles Vere Hodge Margaret Pratt 💍 1886/2281 William Robert Walker Margaret Pratt 💍 1886/118	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 23	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 5 years	Avonside Church	86/1449		25 June 1886	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Church of England
230	26 June 1886	Lawrence Teller Anne Mary Williams	Lawrence Tellet Anne Mary Williams 💍 1886/154	Bachelor Spinster	Jockey	24 26	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years 8 years	Registrars Office	86/1446	Thomas Williams, Father	26 June 1886	Registrar of Marriages J. M. Ollivier
231	26 June 1886	Arthur Henry Garnett Mary Jane Pearse	Arthur Henry Garnett Mary Jane Penrose 💍 1886/1553	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	31 18	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 7 years	House of Richard Pearse	86/1484	Richard Bennett, Father	26 June 1886	Rev. G. Bond, Wesleyan
232	26 June 1886	John Joseph Stongall Harriet Catherine Napier	John Joseph Dougall Harriet Catherine Wagner 💍 1886/3423	Bachelor Spinster	Law Clerk	26 22	Christchurch	14 years 1 year	St. Johns Church, Hororata	86/3484		26 June 1886	Rev. H. C. M. Watson, Church of England
233	28 June 1886	George Carvell Mary Reford	George Carvell Mary Anne Elford 💍 1886/2306	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Housekeeper	38 47	Burnham Christchurch	11 years 11 years	Registrars Office	86/2254		28 June 1886	Registrar Marriages J. M. Ollivier
234	28 June 1886	Henry Crofts Jeanie Flora McDonald Taylor	Henry Crooks Jeanie Flora McDonald Taylor 💍 1886/2272	Widower Spinster	Gardener Servant	55 31	Christchurch Christchurch	29 years 12 years	St. Lukes Church	86/2242		28 June 1886	Ven: Arch: Lingard, Church of England
235	28 June 1886	John Rae Jane Currie	John Reid Janet Rae Currie 💍 1886/2562 James Fraser Jane Currie 💍 1887/2189	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant School Mistress	31 27	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 8 years	House of Richard Currie, Worcester Street	86/2544		28 June 1886	Rev. J. Elmslie, Presbyterian
236	29 June 1886	William Henry Herbert Annie Stocks	William Henry Herbert Emily Ann Stocks 💍 1886/2277	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	26 30	Christchurch Christchurch	1 month 6 years	St. Michaels Church	86/2248		29 June 1886	Rev. W. Harper, 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).