Intentions to Marry, 1889

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840401, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, May 23 2025

Page 621

District of Kaiapoi Quarter ending 30 June 1889

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
701	6 April 1889	Thomas Henry Drabble Mary Thurlow	Thomas Henry Drabble Mary Thurlow 💍 1889/1398	Bachelor Spinster	Spinner weaver	22 22	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	22 years 7 years	The residence of William Thurlow, Cookson Street, Kaiapoi	89/1365		6 April 1889	Rev P. W. Fairclough, Wesleyan
702	6 April 1889	John Higgins Elizabeth Christina Burnip	John Higgins Elizabeth Christine Burnip 💍 1889/1395	Bachelor Spinster	Stable Keeper Dressmaker	28 23	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	4 years 23 years	Presbyterian Church	89/1362		6 April 1889	Rev Robb Macgregor, Presbyterian
703	9 April 1889	John Knapp Edna Cherry	John Knapp Edna Cherry 💍 1889/1381	Bachelor Spinster	Farm labourer Domestic duties	26 19	Eyreton Eyreton	12 months 19 years	Registrar's Office, Kaiapoi	89/1372	Cherry, Father	9 April 1889	The Registrar
704	17 April 1889	Thomas Davies Mary Euphemia Young	Thomas Davis Mary Euphemia Young 💍 1889/1396	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic duties	29 26	Eyreton Kaiapoi	16 years 26 years	The residence of Mrs Young, Aunt Bush, Kaiapoi	89/1363		17 April 1889	Rev Robb Macgregor, Presbyterian
705	20 April 1889	Henry Jones Maud Clara Bailey	Henry James Clark Maud Clara Bailey 💍 1889/1383	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic servant	27 19	Ohoka Ohoka	27 years 1 month	Wesleyan Church, Ohoka	89/1374	Robert Bailey, Father	20 April 1889	Rev J. H. Gray, Wesleyan
706	6 May 1889	Joseph Albert Horner Fanny Wild	Joseph Albert Horner Fanny Wild 💍 1889/1397	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer weaver	22 23	Paparua Kaiapoi	22 years 6 years	The residence of Robert Dunn, Cane Road, Kaiapoi	89/1364		6 May 1889	Rev Robb Macgregor, Presbyterian
707	31 May 1889	George Butler Elizabeth Chapman	George Butters Elizabeth Chapman 💍 1889/1378	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic duties	29 21	Eyreton Eyreton	20 years 15 years	St Thomas Church, Eyreton	89/1369		31 May 1889	Rev J. F. Teakle, Church of England

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).