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 375

District of Wakatipu Quarter ending 31 March 1888 Registrar I Stewart Durie

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

4 January 1888

David Brodie
Martha Sutton

David Brodie
Martha Patten
💍 1888/950

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

28
19

Crown Terrace
Queenstown

8 years
3 days

St Peters Church

88/799

Charles Sutton, Father

4 January 1888

Rev. David O'Hanlon, Church of England Clergyman

No	47
Date of Notice	4 January 1888
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Brodie	Martha Sutton
BDM Match (88%)	David Brodie	Martha Patten
	💍 1888/950
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	19
Dwelling Place	Crown Terrace	Queenstown
Length of Residence	8 years	3 days
Marriage Place	St Peters Church
Folio	88/799
Consent	Charles Sutton, Father
Date of Certificate	4 January 1888
Officiating Minister	Rev. David O'Hanlon, Church of England Clergyman

13 March 1888

Charles Blair Dunlop
Constance Maud Smith

Charles Blair Dunlop
Constance Maud Smith
💍 1888/951

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

38
20

Skippers
Queenstown

16 years
20 years

The Presbyterian Manse

88/800

John Smith, Father

14 March 1888

Rev. Donald Ross, Presbyterian Minister

No	48
Date of Notice	13 March 1888
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Blair Dunlop	Constance Maud Smith
	💍 1888/951
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	38	20
Dwelling Place	Skippers	Queenstown
Length of Residence	16 years	20 years
Marriage Place	The Presbyterian Manse
Folio	88/800
Consent	John Smith, Father
Date of Certificate	14 March 1888
Officiating Minister	Rev. Donald Ross, Presbyterian Minister

19 March 1888

Thomas Spear
Janet Margaret Robertson

Thomas Spear
Janet Margaret Robertson
💍 1888/952

Bachelor
Spinster

Hotelkeeper

31
20

Queenstown
Queenstown

4 years
15 years

The House of William John Thompson

88/801

James Robertson, Father

19 March 1888

Rev. David Gordon, Presbyterian Minister, Invercargill

No	49
Date of Notice	19 March 1888
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Spear	Janet Margaret Robertson
	💍 1888/952
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Hotelkeeper
Age	31	20
Dwelling Place	Queenstown	Queenstown
Length of Residence	4 years	15 years
Marriage Place	The House of William John Thompson
Folio	88/801
Consent	James Robertson, Father
Date of Certificate	19 March 1888
Officiating Minister	Rev. David Gordon, Presbyterian Minister, Invercargill

20 March 1888

Thomas Scott Smith
Elizabeth Turnbull

Thomas Scott Smith
Edith Lillie Turnbull
💍 1888/2023

Bachelor
Spinster

Solicitor

41
28

Queenstown
Invercargill

2 1/2 years
20 years

Presbyterian Church

88/886

20 March 1888

Rev. David Gordon, Presbyterian Minister, Invercargill

No	50
Date of Notice	20 March 1888
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Scott Smith	Elizabeth Turnbull
BDM Match (76%)	Thomas Scott Smith	Edith Lillie Turnbull
	💍 1888/2023
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Solicitor
Age	41	28
Dwelling Place	Queenstown	Invercargill
Length of Residence	2 1/2 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church
Folio	88/886
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 March 1888
Officiating Minister	Rev. David Gordon, Presbyterian Minister, Invercargill

26 March 1888

David Cockburn
Susan Cameron

David Cockburn
Susan Cameron
💍 1888/953

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

32
19

Arthurs Point
Hayes Lake

7 years
19 years

The House of John Salmond

88/802

Declaration made that no one is entitled belonging having the Consent.

26 March 1888

Rev. Donald Ross, Presbyterian Minister

No	51
Date of Notice	26 March 1888
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Cockburn	Susan Cameron
	💍 1888/953
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	32	19
Dwelling Place	Arthurs Point	Hayes Lake
Length of Residence	7 years	19 years
Marriage Place	The House of John Salmond
Folio	88/802
Consent	Declaration made that no one is entitled belonging having the Consent.
Date of Certificate	26 March 1888
Officiating Minister	Rev. Donald Ross, Presbyterian Minister

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 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).