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 1049

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 30 September 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
561	2 July 1888	Patrick Sennen Lizzie Hartigane	Patrick Lennen Lizzie Hartigan 💍 1888/2390	Bachelor Spinster	Woolsorter Domestic Servant	26 years 21 years	Ashburton Ashburton	11 years 4 years	Roman Catholic Church at Ashburton	88/2462		2 July 1888	Revd. J. N. Binsfield
562	12 July 1888	Henry Margetts Mary Louisa Whiting	Henry Margetts Mary Louisa Whiting 💍 1888/2391	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Servant Domestic Servant	26 years 25 years	Newland Newland	11 years 1 month	Registrar's Office Ashburton	88/2463		12 July 1888	J. Ward, Registrar
563	3 August 1888	Alexander McLauchlan Jessie Croth	Alexander McLauchlan Jessie Crook 💍 1888/2392	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic Servant	23 years 22 years	Westerfield Westerfield	18 months 11 months	Registrar's Office Ashburton	88/2464		3 August 1888	J. Ward, Registrar
564	10 August 1888	James Walter Oliver Bessie Sargent	James Walter Oliver Bessie Sargent 💍 1888/2388	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	35 years 21 years	Greenstreet Ashburton Forks	6 years 14 years	Presbyterian Church Ashburton	88/2460		10 August 1888	Revd. A. M. Beattie
565	24 August 1888	William Topp Masson Sarah Jane Rodda	William Topp Masson Sarah Jane Rodda 💍 1888/2387	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic Servant	24 years 19 years	Ashburton Ashburton	19 months 7 years	Private Dwellinghouse of Susannah Rodda, at Ashburton	88/2458	Susannah Rodda, Mother	24 August 1888	Revd. J. N. Buttle
566	6 September 1888	William Porter Mary Patterson	William Porter Mary Patterson 💍 1888/2393 William Rawlins Jane Patterson 💍 1888/3615	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 years 22 years	Longbeach Waterton	11 years 7 months	Presbyterian Church Flemington	88/2465		6 September 1888	Revd. A. Blake
567	24 September 1888	John Henderson Georgina Pearce	John Henderson Georgina Pearce 💍 1888/3192	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Dressmaker	33 years 24 years	Ashburton Ashburton	11 years 18 months	Presbyterian Manse Ashburton	88/3312		24 September 1888	Revd. A. M. Beattie
568	29 September 1888	Samuel Beach Mary Jones	Samuel Beach Mary Jones 💍 1888/3189	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 years 24 years	Willowby Ashburton	6 years 22 years	Private dwellinghouse of Mr Jones Makamin Road, Ashburton	88/3309		29 September 1888	Revd. Jesse Boothroyd

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).