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 626

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
112	6 April 1886	Benjamin Augustus Berry Eleanor Davis	Benjamin Augustus Berry Kate Eleanor Davis 💍 1886/1888	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Hatter	25 17	Christchurch Christchurch	8 months 12 years	St. Matthews Church	86/1805	George Davis, father	6 April 1886	Rev. W. F. Gillam, Church of England
113	6 April 1886	Alexander William Cooke Edith Joynt	Alexander William Cooke Sarah Edith Joynt 💍 1886/3462	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 23 years	Papanui Church	86/1412		6 April 1886	Rev. T. R. Cairns, Presbyterian
114	7 April 1886	James Patterson Miriam Isabella McIntosh	James Pattison Miriam Isabel McIntosh 💍 1886/1556	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler Dressmaker	23 25	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 4 years	House of Henry McIntosh, South Belt	86/1490	Henry McIntosh, father	7 April 1886	Rev. T. R. Cairns, Presbyterian
115	8 April 1886	William Lavery Margaret Sophia Mills	William Lavery Margaret Mills 💍 1886/1538	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	27 29	Christchurch Merivale	2 years	Merivale Church	86/1490		8 April 1886	Rev. J. Flavell, Church of England
116	8 April 1886	William Thomson Nancy Bell	William Thompson Nancy Bell 💍 1886/3444 William Monkhouse Mary Bell 💍 1887/2518	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 26	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 6 years	House of William Thomson, St. Albans	86/1500		8 April 1886	Rev. H. S. Burnett, Presbyterian
117	8 April 1886	John Pearson Jane Freeman	John Pearson Eliza Jane Tubman 💍 1886/1540	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	32 21	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 21 years	Papanui Church	86/1413		8 April 1886	Rev. J. G. S. Hoare, Church of England
118	9 April 1886	Charles Davies Kathleen James	Charles Edward Harvey Kathleen James 💍 1886/1517	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	28 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 21 years	Registrar Office	86/1424		9 April 1886	Registrar of Marriages, J. Mankersson
119	10 April 1886	Henry George Davis Clara Brown	Henry George Samuel Davis Clara Brown 💍 1886/1889	Bachelor Spinster	Dyer Dressmaker	19 21	Christchurch Christchurch	11 years 12 years	St. Matthews Church	86/1806	George Davis, father	10 April 1886	Rev. W. F. Gillam, 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).