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 653

District of Christchurch 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
227	22 June 1888	James Buchan Jane Jane & Margaret		Bachelor	Cooper	24	Christchurch	2 years	House of William Angus	88/1522		22 June 1888	Rev. C. Rollaston
228	22 June 1888	Walter George Burnett Angus		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Tailoress	28 28	Christchurch Christchurch	14 days 3 years	St. Peter's Church	88/1910		23 June 1888	Rev. C. Bowen, Church of England
229	23 June 1888	George Lee Jane Wagstaff &		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 23	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 23 years	All Saints Church	88/1504		25 June 1888	Rev. W. Dunkley, Church of England
230	25 June 1888	Fred McCellum Florence Coveney	Fred McAllum Florence Caveney 💍 1888/1561	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	29 24	Christchurch Christchurch	6 months 1 week	Congregational Church, Manchester Street	88/1527		25 June 1888	Rev. J. Hoaldom, Congregational
231	25 June 1888	William Brady Jane McAnally	William Brady Lucy Jane McAnally 💍 1888/1583	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	21 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 1 year	Roman Catholic Church	88/1680	Heagh McAnally, Father	25 June 1888	Rev. P. Smythe, Roman Catholic
232	26 June 1888	Charles Bush Mary Aston	Charles Bush Mary Astor 💍 1888/2335	Widower Spinster	Carrier Servant	41 28	Christchurch Christchurch	18 years 7 years	Avonside Church	88/2380		26 June 1888	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Church of England
233	27 June 1888	George Checkley Pauline Dallas	George Checkley Mary Paulina Dallas 💍 1888/1883	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 25 years	St. John's Church	88/1918		27 June 1888	Rev. H. M. Watson, Church of England
234	27 June 1888	Lawrence Kirwan Rosella McVeigh	Laurence Kirwan Rose McVeigh 💍 1888/1584	Widower Spinster	Storekeeper Matron	48 50	Christchurch Christchurch	3 months 20 years	Roman Catholic Church	88/1481		27 June 1888	Rev. P. Smythe, Roman Catholic
235	28 June 1888	Joseph Wilson Maud Evered	Joseph Wilson Sophia Ann Chard Evered 💍 1888/1600	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Housekeeper	36 37	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 1 month	Wesleyan Parsonage, East Belt	88/1547		28 June 1888	Rev. J. Williams, Wesleyan
236	29 June 1888	John Smith Eleanor Rossiter	John Smith Lucy Eleanor Rossiter 💍 1888/2341	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 21	Christchurch Papanni	6 days 18 years	House of Wm. Rossiter	88/2386		29 June 1888	Rev. C. H. Tizard, Wesleyan

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).