Intentions to Marry, 1888

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840400, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Alexandra at Archives NZ Wellington, May 14 2025

Page 541

District of Masterton Quarter ending 30 June 1888

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
7	7 April 1888	Charles Frederick Vallance Lily Anne Hales	Charles Frederick Vallance Lily Ann Hales 💍 1888/1279	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	21 25	Taurau Flat Point	21 years 9 days	House of Mr. I. W. Hales	88/1261		7 April 1888	Rev. W. S. West
8	9 April 1888	John Mackay Annie Mackay	John MacKay Annie McKay 💍 1888/1283 John MacKay Annie McGlashan Reid 💍 1888/213	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	44 20	Hills worth Wanganui Te Ore Ore	9 months 17 years	House of Mr. Geo Mackay	88/1264	Geo Mackay, Father	9 April 1888	Rev. D. Dalton
9	12 April 1888	Mads Christensen Anna Christina Larsen	Mads Christensen Anna Christine Larsen 💍 1888/1285	Bachelor Spinster	Clergyman	31 18	Mauriceville Mauriceville	18 months 17 years	Lutheran Church	88/1267	Jens Larsen, Father	12 April 1888	Rev. George Sass
10	17 April 1888	Joseph Applin Martha Applin	Joseph Applin Martha Aplin 💍 1888/1280	Bachelor Widow	Farmer Nurse	46 45	Masterton Masterton	5 days 3 months	Office of Registrar of Marriages Masterton	88/1262		17 April 1888	H. T. Kibblewhite, Deputy Registrar
11	18 April 1888	James Wilton Jessie Oliver	James Wilton Jessie Oliver 💍 1888/1284	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 18	Masterton Kuripuni	4 years 10 days	House of Mr. Chas Wilton	88/1265	Jas Prendergast, a Judge of the Supreme Court	18 April 1888	Rev. D. Dalton
12	19 April 1888	James Price Clark Kate Bloom	James Pirie Clark Kate Bloom 💍 1888/1286	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	30 21	Masterton Masterton	4 months 11 months	Office of Registrar of Marriages Masterton	88/1268		19 April 1888	H. T. Kibblewhite, Deputy Registrar
13	1 May 1888	James O'Brien Agnes McLaughlin	James O'Brien Agnes McLaughlin 💍 1888/3604 James Handley Annie McLaughlin 💍 1888/316	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 16	Pahiatua Pahiatua	2 years 11 years	Roman Catholic Chapel Masterton	88/1266	Bridget Singleton, mother	1 May 1888	Rev. John McKenna

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).