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 665

District of Ashburton 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
542	26 April 1888	Oliver Drennan Honora Dillon	Oliver Drennan Honorah Dillon 💍 1888/1655	Widower Widow	Labourer	60 years 40 years	Winslow Ashburton	9 years 10 years	Roman Catholic Church, Ashburton	88/1605		26 April 1888	Revd. Father Binsfeld
543	8 May 1888	John O'Connor Margaret Mocken	John O'Connor Margaret Moghan 💍 1888/1656	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	26 years 25 years	Ashburton Ashburton	3 days 3 days	Roman Catholic Ch. Ashburton	88/1606		8 May 1888	Revd. Father Binsfeld
544	12 May 1888	James Beach Emily Loveday Stevens	James Beach Emily Loveday Stevens 💍 1888/1679	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 years 16 years	Winslow Ashton	5 years 6 years	Registrar's Office Ashburton	88/1610	William Stevens, father	12 May 1888	J. Ward, Registrar
545	12 May 1888	William Pollock Alice Hughes	William Pollock Alice Jackson Hughes 💍 1888/1682	Baker, Bachelor Factory Hand, Spinster	Baker Factory Hand	25 years 19 years	Ashburton Allenton	2 1/2 years 6 years	Registrar's Office Ashburton	88/1613	Richard Jackson Hughes, father	12 May 1888	J. Ward, Registrar
546	22 May 1888	Andrew Crawford Harriett Mills	Andrew Crawford Harriett Mills 💍 1888/1680	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	27 years 21 years	Ashburton Ashburton	4 years 13 years	Registrar's Office Ashburton	88/1611		22 May 1888	J. Ward, Registrar
547	29 May 1888	Murdoch McRae Ellen Chapell McLaren	Murdoch McRae Ellen Chapell McLaren 💍 1888/1681	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	33 years 27 years	Mayfield Mayfield	6 months 4 Weeks	Private dwellinghouse of Christina McAulay, Mayfield	88/1612	Not married as notice withdrawn	29 May 1888	Revd. William Finlayson
548	29 May 1888	George Stockdill Sarah Anderson	George Stockdill Sarah Jane Anderson 💍 1888/1675	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 years 20 years	Flemington Tinwald	8 years 12 years	The Manse Tinwald	88/1608	Henry Anderson, Father	30 May 1888	Revd. A. Blake
549	1 June 1888	Murdoch McRae Ellen Chapell McLaren	Murdoch McRae Ellen Chapell McLaren 💍 1888/1681	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	33 years 27 years	Mayfield Mayfield	6 months 4 Weeks	Registrars Office Ashburton	88/1612		1 June 1888	J. Ward, Registrar
550	2 June 1888	Joseph Mawson Mary Ann Holland	Joseph Mawson Mary Ann Holland 💍 1888/1664	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 years 18 years	Wheatstone Flemington	2 1/2 years 10 years	Private dwellinghouse of Samuel Holland at Flemington	88/1607	Samuel Holland, Father	2 June 1888	Revd. A. Blake

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).