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 1359

District of Buller Quarter ending 31 December 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
446	30 October 1888	Charles Daniel Harvey Ada Sandon Lane	Charles Daniel Harney Ada Landon Lane 💍 1888/3018	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Schoolmistress	24 23	Denniston Denniston	12 months 3 years	Church of England, Westport	88/3134		30 October 1888	James E. Buller
447	3 November 1888	Neil William Campbell Sophia Mary Ballard	Neil William Campbell Sophia Mary Ballard 💍 1888/3622	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 22	Westport Westport	15 months 5 years	At the residence of Mr William Ballard, Westport	88/3618		3 November 1888	Henry Brown Burnett
448	10 November 1888	John Richard Richards Sophia Rathbone	John Richard Richards Sophia Rathhone 💍 1888/3507	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Dressmaker	22 24	Westport Westport	8 months 13 years	At the residence of Mr Samuel Johnston, Westport	88/3630		10 November 1888	E. O. Perry
449	17 November 1888	Charles Maddison Matilda Augusta Minnie Dalkie	Charles Maddison Matilda Augusta Minnie Dalkie 💍 1888/3623	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer Domestic Servant	22 21	Westport Westport	15 years 3 months	At the residence of Mr H. B. Burnett, Westport	88/3619		17 November 1888	Henry Brown Burnett
450	19 November 1888	James Young Esther Mary Ann Stanton	James Young Esther Margaret Stanton 💍 1888/3030	Widower Spinster	Coal Miner Housemaid	34 22	Waimangaroa Waimangaroa	13 years 6 weeks	Church of England, Waimangaroa	88/3139		19 November 1888	Thomas Anson Oats
451	20 November 1888	Henry Sornby Mary Jane Stockdale	Henry Sowerby Mary Jane Stockdale 💍 1888/3020	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 33	Waimangaroa Waimangaroa	6 years 5 days	At the Registrar's residence, Waimangaroa	88/3136		20 November 1888	Edward Orenden Perry
452	12 December 1888	John Graham Sarah Shields	John Graham Sarah Shields 💍 1888/3019	Bachelor Spinster	Coal Miner	28 22	Denniston Denniston	5 years 6 years	Office, Westport	88/3135		12 December 1888	The Registrar
453	22 December 1888	Charles Otho Eggers Florina Catherine Kelly	Charles Otto Eggers Florence Catherine Kelly 💍 1888/3021	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Domestic	21 19	Westport Westport	18 months 19 years	Wesleyan Church, Westport	88/3137	Ellen Josephson, Mother	22 December 1888	E. O. Perry

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).