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 579

District of Wairau 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
10	10 April 1888	Thomas Livey Clara Ann Dique	Thomas Fivey Clara Ann Squire 💍 1888/1368 Thomas Lobb Clara Rive 💍 1888/1741	Bachelor Spinster	Stationhand Miliner	31 years 28	Birduddill Blenheim	3 years about 2 years	The office of the Registrar of marriage, Blenheim	88/1344		10 April 1888	The Registrar of marriages, Blenheim
11	10 April 1888	Joseph Henry Thompson Maria East	Joseph Henry Thompson Maria East 💍 1888/1386	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger Laundress	32 34	Blenheim Blenheim	7 years 2 years	The House of Mr. W. Armstrong, Herbert Street, Blenheim	88/1338		10 April 1888	Revd. I. S. Grace
12	21 April 1888	Henry Stephen Burns Emily Mary Dawes	Henry Stephen Burns Emily Mary Dawes 💍 1888/1387	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	21 18	Blenheim Blenheim	14 years 18 years	The House of Mr. G. H. Burns, Sinclair Street, Blenheim	88/1339	James Dawes, father.	21 April 1888	Revd. W. O. Robb
13	17 May 1888	John Dow Busby Isabella Selina Monro	John Dow Busby Isabella Selina Monro 💍 1888/1384	Bachelor Widow	Sheep farmer Gentlewoman	54 39	Blairich awatere Valleyfield	9 years 15 years	The Church of the Nativity, Blenheim	88/1336		17 May 1888	Revd. I. S. Grace
14	21 May 1888	George Bates Elizabeth Harriet Smith	George Cates Elizabeth Harriet Smith 💍 1888/1388	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 19	Wairau Valley Blenheim	26 years 2 years	The House of Mr. Thomas Franklin, Birch Street, Blenheim	88/1340	Elizabeth Smith, mother.	21 May 1888	Revd. W. O. Robb
15	2 June 1888	George Cleghorn Adelen Browning	George Cleghorn Helen Browning 💍 1888/2245	Widower Spinster	Medical Practitioner	37 20	Blenheim Blenheim	12 years 2 years	The Church of the Nativity, Blenheim	See Sept Quarter	no person in the colony authorised to give consent.	1 July 1888	Revd. I. S. Grace
16	9 June 1888	William Jeffries Mary Ellen Francis	William Jeffries Mary Ellen Francis 💍 1888/1385	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	25 19	Blenheim Blenheim	25 years 18 years	The House of Mr. Daniel Pryford, main Street, Blenheim	88/1337	Frances Jeffries, father.	9 June 1888	Revd. I. S. Grace
17	11 June 1888	Frederick Henry Mills Mary Helen Daken	Frederick Henry Mills Mary Helen Daken 💍 1888/1389	Bachelor Spinster	Shearer	23 22	Blenheim Blenheim	2 years 2 years	The House of Mr. Thomas Mills, Herbert Street, Blenheim	88/1341		11 June 1888	Revd. W. O. Robb

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).