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 1022

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 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
296	21 August 1889	Thomas Henderson Ellen Heywood		Bachelor Spinster	Dairyman	26 19	Christchurch Christchurch	14 years 10 years	House of Thos Henderson, Kingsley St	89/2276	J Vogel, Father	21 August 1889	Rev P R Monro, Presbyterian
297	22 August 1889	William Hulce Sarah Deach	William Fisher Sarah Beal 💍 1889/3496 William Harper Sarah Pratt 💍 1889/1609 William Clampitt Sarah Cash 💍 1890/702	Bachelor Spinster	Journeyman	26 22	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 19 years	Registrars Office	89/2363	J Vogel, Father	22 August 1889	J W Patterson, Registrar of Marriages
298	23 August 1889	James Louis Brown Emma Clara Davison	James Larimer Brown Rosa Clara Davison 💍 1889/2319	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Servant	25 22	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 22 years	St Lukes Church, Manchester Street	89/2330		23 August 1889	Ven Archdeacon Lingard, Church of England
299	24 August 1889	Edward Bond Rebecca Cane	Edward Bond Rebecca Cave Cartwright 💍 1889/2317	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	51 44	Christchurch Christchurch	16 years 14 years	St Lukes Church	89/2328		24 August 1889	Ven Archdeacon Lingard, Church of England
300	26 August 1889	Walter Joseph Rae Minnie Pierson		Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith	27 21	Christchurch Christchurch	27 years 15 years	Registrars Office	89/2285		26 August 1889	J W Patterson, Registrar of Marriages
301	26 August 1889	Thomas Hankwell Daisy Susan Schneider		Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	21 35	Christchurch Christchurch	21 years 35 years	Registrars Office	89/2364		26 August 1889	J W Patterson, Registrar of Marriages
302	27 August 1889	William Gardine Mary Emily Candy	William Gardiner Mary Emily Candy 💍 1889/2330	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 31	Christchurch Halswell	3 years 30 years	St Mary's Church	89/2342		27 August 1889	Rev H S East, Church of England
303	27 August 1889	Walter Joseph Rae Emily Susan Schneider	Walter Joseph Rae Emily Susan Schrader 💍 1889/2297	Bachelor Widow	Tinsmith	27 35	Christchurch Sydenham	27 years 31 years	House of Rev L M Jitt, Harper Street	89/2285		27 August 1889	Rev L M Jitt, 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).