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 253

District of Quarter ending 31 March 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
81	16 March 1888	William Edward Sitontenay Reynolds Eleanor Whiteford	William Edward De Fontenay Reynolds Eleanor Whiteford 💍 1888/659	Widower Spinster	Builder	47 29	Christchurch Christchurch	15 years 11 years	House of Revd. Dallaston, Oxford Terrace	88/526	16 March 1888	Revd. E. Dallaston, Baptist
82	17 March 1888	Robert Rutledge Isabella Hamilton	Robert Rutledge Isabella Hamilton 💍 1888/663	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 26	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 5 years	St. Saviours Church	88/530	17 March 1888	Revd. H. K. Cocks, Church of England
83	19 March 1888	Albert Ashley Backler Cecelia Nepps	Albert Ashley Cecelia Neppo 💍 1888/720	Bachelor Spinster	Foreman Servant	30 24	Christchurch Christchurch	5 weeks 3 weeks	Registrars Office	88/564	19 March 1888	Registrar of Marriages, J. J. Morkisson
84	19 March 1888	John Martin Michael Loss Alice Pleasance	John Martin Mitchell Alice Pleasance 💍 1888/649	Bachelor Spinster	Miller Dressmaker	24 21	Christchurch Sydenham	15 years 21 years	House of Wm. Pleasance, Stanley St.	88/493	19 March 1888	Revd. W. Keall, Wesleyan
85	19 March 1888	Samuel Norman White Mary Giles	Samuel Norman White Mary Giles 💍 1888/721	Bachelor Spinster		30 35	Christchurch Christchurch	2 months 2 months	Registrars Office	88/565	19 March 1888	Registrar of Marriages, J. J. Morkisson
86	19 March 1888	Charles Forbes Battye Margaret Amelia Le Gassick	Charles Forbes Battye Margaret Amelia Le Gassick 💍 1888/633	Bachelor Spinster	Music Teacher	40 22	Christchurch Christchurch	1 month 8 years	House of Jacob Le Gassick, Hereford St.	88/499	19 March 1888	Revd. J. Williams, Wesleyan
87	20 March 1888	John Powers Martha Bailey	John Power Martha Bailey 💍 1888/698	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 1 week	Registrars Office	88/566	20 March 1888	Registrar of Marriages, J. J. Morkisson
88	22 March 1888	Duncan Henry Yearnpenny Emma Mary Zachariah		Widower Widow	Dressmaker Dressmaker	45 45	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 10 years	St. Johns Church	88/1915	22 March 1888	Revd. H. E. M. Watson, Church of England
89	24 March 1888	Robert William Cuddeford Margaret Paton	Robert William Caddeford Margaret Paton 💍 1888/3438	Bachelor Spinster		28 27	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 1 year	Summers Church	88/3537	24 March 1888	Revd. C. J. Merton, Church of England
90	26 March 1888	Richard Thomas Lees Emma Sheppard	Richard Thomas Lees Emma Shepard 💍 1888/1779	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 21	Dunedin Dunedin	20 years 20 years	House of C. G. Sheppard, Maitland Street, Dunedin	88/734	26 March 1888	Revd. W. G. Parsonson, Wesleyan

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).