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 648

District of Christchurch 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
177	12 May 1888	Thomas John Ballantyne Henrie Sale		Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 6 years	House of Thomas Dale	88/1512		12 May 1888	Rev. J. Orchard, Bible Christian
178	12 May 1888	Alfred Wilkinson Elizabeth Westlake	Alfred Wilkinson Elizabeth Westlake 💍 1888/1525	Bachelor Spinster	Woodturner Machinist	26 25	Christchurch Christchurch	1 month 1 week	Salvation Army Barracks	88/1482		12 May 1888	J. P. Taylor, Salvation Army
179	12 May 1888	Robert Alexander Wilkinson Edith Gardiner	Robert Alexander David Wilson Emily Edith Gardiner 💍 1888/1896	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	30 18	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 10 years	St. Andrew's Church	88/1908	Gardiner, Father	12 May 1888	Rev. G. Webster, Presbyterian
180	14 May 1888	Alfred James Gregg Edith Jane Arthur	Alfred James Grigg Edith Jane Arthur 💍 1888/1563	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	28 26	Christchurch Christchurch	9 days 4 days	St. Mary's Church	88/1529		14 May 1888	Rev. H. East, Church of England
181	14 May 1888	William Cross Mina Louden	William Cross Eliza Louden 💍 1888/1557	Widower Spinster	Farmer Servant	56 30	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 3 years	House of Rev. E. H. Laws, North St.	88/1524		14 May 1888	Rev. E. H. Laws, Wesleyan
182	14 May 1888	Joseph William Cassin Clara Samuels	Joseph William Cassin Clara Samuels 💍 1888/1575	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	27 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 24 years	Roman Catholic Church	88/1473		14 May 1888	Rev. P. Smythe, Roman Catholic
183	15 May 1888	Maitland Gordon Rich Isabel Hutton	Maitland Gordon Rich Mabel Montgomerie Hutton 💍 1888/1594	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 21	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 5 years	St. Michael's Church	88/1541		15 May 1888	Rev. W. Harper, Church of England
184	15 May 1888	George Libeau Rosa Elina Moss	George Libeau Rosa Eliza Moss 💍 1888/1553	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	39 25	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 3 years	House of William Moss, Hereford St.	88/1519		15 May 1888	Rev. E. Ballaston, Baptist
185	16 May 1888	Frederick Atkins Lucinda McCausland	Frederick Atkins Lucinda McCann 💍 1888/1617	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	23 24	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 5 years	Registrar's Office	88/1567		16 May 1888	J. M. Madderson, Registrar
186	16 May 1888	James Anderson Georgina McFarlane	James Anderson Esther Georgina MacFarlane 💍 1888/3388	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	23 18	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 5 years	House of Rev. J. Plumslee, Lichfield St.	88/1462	No person to consent	16 May 1888	Rev. J. Plumslee, Presbyterian

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).