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 240

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 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
40	8 February 1886	Walter John Dutton Elena Roie Dutton	Walter John Dutton Eliza Roil 💍 1886/719	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	20 22	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 2 years	St. Matthews Church, St. Albans	86/618	John Dutton, Father	8 February 1886	Rev. W. P. Gillam
41	9 February 1886	Northleigh Bartholomew Gedley Annie Taylor	Northleigh Bartholomew Gidley Mary Ann Taylor 💍 1886/88 William Elwood Smith Annie Taylor 💍 1886/2616	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Housekeeper	26 26	Sydenham Christchurch	3 months 6 years	Registrars Office	86/584		9 February 1886	J. M. Madderson, Registrar of Marriages
42	9 February 1886	Isaac Hocking Elizabeth Richards	Isaac Hocking Elizabeth Richards 💍 1886/87	Bachelor Spinster	Porter Servant	29 18	Christchurch Christchurch	10 months 10 years	Registrars Office	86/583	Elizabeth Smith, Mother	9 February 1886	J. M. Madderson, Registrar
43	10 February 1886	Thomas Edward Taylor Isabella Munro	Thomas Edward Taylor Annie Isabelle Murphy 💍 1886/3411	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	26 23	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 5 years	St. Johns Church	86/3449		10 February 1886	Rev. A. C. Wright
44	10 February 1886	Edward Alexander Dawson Margaret Tweedie	Edward Alexander Dawson Margaret Tweedie 💍 1886/678	Bachelor Spinster	Signalman Servant	24 23	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 3 years	St. Pauls Church	86/528		10 February 1886	Rev. J. Plussie
45	9 February 1886	Charles Stewart Louisa Sedgemore	Charles Stewart Louisa Sedgemore 💍 1886/66	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Servant	35 28	Christchurch Christchurch	9 years 10 years	Registrars Office	86/585		10 February 1886	J. M. Madderson, Registrar of Marriages
46	10 February 1886	Henry Thomas Bruce Sarah Bruce	Henry Thomas Sarah Bruce 💍 1886/67	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	21 19	Christchurch Christchurch	12 years 12 years	Registrars Office	86/586	Jonathan Bruce, Father	10 February 1886	J. M. Madderson, Registrar
47	11 February 1886	George Witty Louisa Drayton	George Witty Louisa Drayton 💍 1886/3455	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 21	West Melton West Melton	10 years 6 years	House of Rev. W. Deans	86/523		11 February 1886	Rev. W. Deans, Presbyterian

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).