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 1427

District of Ashburton 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
569	26 October 1888	David Caincross Dorah Moriarty	David Cairncrass Dorah Moriarty 💍 1888/3242	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	29 years 20 years	Tinwald Tinwald	10 years 4 1/2 years	Presbyterian Manse	88/3316	Daniel Moriarty, Father	22 December 1888	Revd. A. Blake
570	26 October 1888	John Osborne Sarah Ann Hayman	John Osborne Sarah Anne Hayman 💍 1888/3569	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 years 21 years	Willowby Willowby	10 years 10 years	Wesleyan Church	88/3313		26 October 1888	Revd. J. W. Buttle
571	30 October 1888	Arthur Henry Field Mona Cunningham Graham	Arthur Henry Field Nora Cunninghame Graham 💍 1888/3190	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 years 22 years	Ashburton Ashburton	6 years 1 1/2 years	St. Stephen's Church	88/3310		30 October 1888	Revd. E. A. Scott
572	24 November 1888	William Young Amy Eade	William Young Amy Ede 💍 1888/3187	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 years 22 years	Flemington Tinwald	2 years 2 years	St. Andrew's Church	88/3308		24 November 1888	Revd. R. F. Garbett
573	5 December 1888	Thomas Miller Sarah McCarten	Thomas Miller Sarah McCarten 💍 1888/3225	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman Domestic Servant	40 years 21 years	Mount Somers Mount Somers	3 years 3 years	Registrar's Office	88/3314		5 December 1888	J. Mard, Registrar
574	11 December 1888	William Gilham Louisa Hicks	William Gilham Louisa Hicks 💍 1888/3236	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Burning Mistress & District School	34 years 34 years	Springburn Springburn	5 years 5 years	Registrar's Office	88/3315		11 December 1888	J. Mard, Registrar
575	11 December 1888	William Brown Hood Elspeth Crichton Bayne	William Brown Hood Elspeth Crichton Syme 💍 1888/3186	Bachelor Spinster	Assistant Manager of an Hotel	30 years 20 years	Mount Somers Springburn	2 1/2 years 3 years at Springburn	Private Dwellinghouse of David Byrne	88/3307	David Byrne, Father	15 December 1888	Revd. W. Finlayson
576	14 December 1888	Thomas Dotty Louisa Sarah Patching	Thomas Totty Louisa Sarah Patching 💍 1888/3191	Bachelor Spinster	Livery Stable Keeper	35 years 24 years	Ashburton Ashburton	5 years 8 years	St. Stephen's Church	88/3311		14 December 1888	Revd. E. A. Scott
577	15 December 1888	Arthur Benchler Sarah Jane Brown	Arthur Buechler Sarah Jane Brown 💍 1889/566 Arthur Hulme Clara Jane Brown 💍 1888/3591	Widower Spinster	Schoolmaster Teacher	40 years 18 years	Mount Somers Mount Somers	3 years 6 years at Mount Somers	Private Dwellinghouse of James Brown	88/1608	James Brown, Father	20 December 1888	Revd. W. Finlayson

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).