Intentions to Marry, 1887

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840399, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, May 14 2025

Page 125

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1887

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
25	25 January 1887	Robert Dixon Isabella Ruther	Robert Dixon Isabella Rutter 💍 1887/2579	Widower Widow	Settler	66 56	Wellington Wellington	3 days	House of Mr. Trevor, Courtenay Place	87/286		25 January 1887	Rev. J. J. Parmay
26	26 January 1887	Alfred Browett Mary Thomas	Alfred Browett Mary Thomas 💍 1887/2600	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	27 27	Wellington Wellington	4 years	Registrars office, Wellington	87/304		26 January 1887	W. T. Wyatt
27	27 January 1887	George Henry Smith Evaline Ritchie	George Henry Smith Evaline Ritchie 💍 1887/2571	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	43 31	Wellington Wellington	5 years	St. Pauls Cathedral	87/279		27 January 1887	Rev. John Still
28	28 January 1887	Arthur Roby Pen Loader Mary Jane Halcrow	Arthur Robert Ven Lodder Mary Jane Halcrow 💍 1887/2638	Bachelor Spinster	Torpedo Lieutenant	30 18	Wellington Wellington	15 months	House of Rev. C. S. Ogg	87/346	Mary Orr, mother	28 January 1887	Rev. C. S. Ogg
29	28 January 1887	Henry Bennett Kennedy Annie Avison		Bachelor Spinster	Cab Proprietor	23 22	Wellington Wellington	4 years	St. Pauls Cathedral	87/308		28 January 1887	Rev. John Still
30	31 January 1887	Sydenham James Llewellyn Margaret Eades	Sydenham James Llewellyn Margaret Eades 💍 1887/2590	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	26 18	Wellington Wellington	4 years	House of Mr. Eades, Abel Smith Street	87/298	William Eades, father	31 January 1887	Rev. L. M. Isitt
31	2 February 1887	Reedy O'Leary Catherine O'Leary	Keady O'Leary Catherine O'Leary 💍 1887/2610	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	20 25	Wellington Wellington	4 years	St. Marys Cathedral	87/294		2 February 1887	Rev. J. McNamara
32	3 February 1887	William Freeman Jones Emmerah Page	William Freeman Emmarah Page 💍 1887/2637	Bachelor Spinster	Confectioner	30 25	Wellington Wellington	4 years	St. Pauls Cathedral	87/334		3 February 1887	Rev. John Still
33	3 February 1887	Murtoch Collins Mary Ann Woulden	Murtagh Collins Mary Ann Wouldes 💍 1887/2602	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	24 23	Wellington Wellington	14 days	Registrars office, Wellington	87/309		3 February 1887	W. T. Wyatt
34	8 February 1887	Bengt Johanson Alice Harriet Stokes	Bengt Johanson Alice Harriet Hooker 💍 1887/2604	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	33 25	Ohariu Ohariu	2 weeks	Registrars office, Wellington	87/311		8 February 1887	W. T. Wyatt
35	8 February 1887	Henry Charles Haselden Emma Smith	Henry Charles Haselden Emma Smith 💍 1887/2583	Bachelor Spinster	Pork Butcher and Tanner	25 25	Wellington Wellington	4 years	House of Mr. Haselden, Price Street	87/267		8 February 1887	Rev. H. H. Trivett
36	8 February 1887	William Henry Anthony Emma Petty	William Henry Anthony Emma Potty 💍 1887/1687	Widower Spinster	Chemist	37 24	Wellington Wellington	4 years	St. Marks Church	87/340		8 February 1887	Rev. R. Coffey

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).