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 1457

District of Palmerston South 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
7	16 October 1888	Rufus Case Douglas Annie Norman Welsh	Rufus Owen Douglas Annie Norman Welsh 💍 1888/3316	Bachelor Spinster	Tanner Dressmaker	21 24	Palmerston Palmerston	3 Days 3 Days	Church Palmerston	88/3355		16 October 1888	Rev James Clark Presbyterian
8	24 October 1888	Joseph Hamilton Bertha Elizabeth Johnstone	Joseph Hamilton Bertha Elizabeth Johnstone 💍 1888/3317	Bachelor Spinster	Labour Domestic	27 17	Palmerston Palmerston	10 years Dwelling house of 17 years W Robert Johnstone		88/3356	Robert Johnstone Father	24 October 1888	Rev James Clark Presbyterian
9	6 November 1888	Nathan Copeland Caldwell Mary McIntosh	Nathian Copeland Caldwell Mary McIntosh 💍 1888/3318	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman Domestic	32 25	Shag Valley Shag Point	1 Month Dwelling house of 18 years W Wm McIntosh		88/3357		6 November 1888	Rev James Clark Presbyterian
10	1 December 1888	Martin John Lister Elizabeth Miller	Martin John Lister Elizabeth Miller 💍 1888/3320	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	25 26	Palmerston Shag Valley	5 Days House of Mr 23 years James Miller Shag Valley		88/3358		1 December 1888	Rev James Clark Presbyterian
11	27 December 1888	John Henry Missen Ada Keedwell Cobden	John Henry Missen Ada Keedwell Cobden 💍 1888/3321	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic	22 20	Palmerston Palmerston	5 Days House of Mrs 17 years Mary Ann Cobden Palmerston		88/3359	Mary Ann Cobden Mother	27 December 1888	Rev James Clark Presbyterian
12	27 December 1888	Wallace Wilcock Elizabeth Coventry	Wallace Wilcock Elizabeth Coventry Thomson Drummond 💍 1888/3322	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	25 16	Dunback Dunback	3 years House of Mr James Duncan 16 years Thomson Drummond Dunback		88/3360	Thomson Drummond Father	27 December 1888	Rev James Clark Presbyterian

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).