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 236

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
8	8 January 1886	Isaac Herman Florence Rosetta Herman		Spinster		20	House of Isaac Herman Christchurch	7 years	House of Isaac Herman			1886	Rev J. Zachariah
9	11 January 1886	Henry Lauder Thomas Pitman Bowers		Bachelor Bachelor	Merchant Hotelkeeper	28 35	Ashburton Christchurch	9 years 3 days	Hereford St. Church	86/564	Father	11 January 1886	Hebrew
10	12 January 1886	Alfred Hulston Bridget Dalton	Alfred Hulston Lucy Elizabeth Warren 💍 1886/675	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Housemaid	29 28	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 6 years	Roman Catholic Church	86/610		1886	Revd J. McQuarty
11	12 January 1886	Sydney Hosking Elizabeth Warren	Sydney Hosking Eliza Wallis 💍 1886/697	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	21 34	Springston Christchurch	7 years 7 years	R. Black, Kilmore Street	86/548		1886	Rev R. Prurie
12	12 January 1886	William Itears Vlena Wallis		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	45 20	Christchurch Springston	27 years 7 years	Wesleyan Church	86/570	Mother	1886	Rev W. Connell
12	12 January 1886	Richard Schumacher Mary Murphey	Richard Schumacher Mary Ann Large 💍 1886/701	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 44	Paparua Christchurch	25 years 26 years	St. Michaels Church	86/605		1886	Rev W. Harper
13	13 January 1886	James Banks Anne Large		Bachelor Spinster	Saddler Servant	24 19	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 19 years	Registrars Office	86/574	Father	13 January 1886	J. M. Macleod
14	13 January 1886	William Vine Margaret Davidson	William Swaine Margaret Mary Fyfe 💍 1886/3379 William Dawn Margaret Simmons 💍 1886/2857 William Millar Margaret Gilbertson 💍 1886/3039 William McLellan Margaret Ferguson 💍 1886/2485 William Cord Margaret King 💍 1887/2049 William Shaw Margaret Haughey 💍 1886/3434 William Lithgow Margaret Woods 💍 1886/3459 William Bannister Margaret Taylor 💍 1886/201 William Duncan Margaret Brown 💍 1886/1821 William Lavery Margaret Mills 💍 1886/1538 William Liddy Margaret Jane Hassard 💍 1886/2098 William Charles Reed Margaret Robinson 💍 1886/21 William Aitken Margaret Harriet Bignall 💍 1886/2571	Bachelor Spinster	Builder Servant	25 23	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 6 years	Cashel St.	86/526		1886	Rev J. Leslie
15	14 January 1886	William Vine Annie	William Vine Annie Louise Cox 💍 1886/694	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	25	Christchurch Lincoln	2 years 8 years	Episcopalian Church	86/568		1886	Rev J. F. Teakle
	14 January 1886	Louise Cox		Spinster		24	Lincoln	8 years	Church

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).