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 127

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
49	24 February 1887	William George Holt Maria Watts	William George Hood Maria Walton 💍 1887/2657	Bachelor Widow	Stoker	24 25	Lower Hutt Wellington	3 weeks 4 years	House of Revd. James Paterson	87/341		24 February 1887	Revd. James Paterson
50	26 February 1887	Robert Watts Emily Haynes	Robert Watts Emily Haynes 💍 1887/1696	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	29 27	Wellington Wellington	4 years 2 months	St. Marks Church	87/3403		26 February 1887	Revd. Richard Coffey
52	1 March 1887	William George Hooper Maria Josephine Wilson	William McCloy Millar Maria Jane Wilson 💍 1887/709	Widower Widow	Blacksmith	36 30	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Registrars Office Wellington	87/318		1 March 1887	W. T. Wyatt
53	1 March 1887	Thomas Dawson Clara Greaves	Thomas Dawson Clara Greaves 💍 1887/2624	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	32 21	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Registrars Office Wellington	87/315		1 March 1887	W. T. Wyatt
54	1 March 1887	William Clark Jessie King	William Clark Jessie King 💍 1887/2630	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 26	Wellington Wellington	4 months 14 days	Registrars Office Wellington	87/316		1 March 1887	W. T. Wyatt
55	1 March 1887	John Barnes Martha Barnes	John Barnes Martha Barnes 💍 1887/2631 John Jones Sarah Barnes 💍 1888/607	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 24	Makara Ohariu	4 years 4 years	Registrars Office Wellington	87/314		1 March 1887	W. T. Wyatt
56	1 March 1887	William Sheppard Susan Hallen	William Sheppard Susan Stallson 💍 1887/2633	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	22 20	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Registrars Office Wellington	87/319		1 March 1887	W. T. Wyatt
57	1 March 1887	William Jamieson Catherine Geddes	William Hutton Catherine Anderson 💍 1887/705 William Harries Catherine Clutrie 💍 1888/510 William Bryant Catherine George 💍 1887/1397 William Rayner Catherine Cameron 💍 1887/2703 William Casey Catherine O'Donnell 💍 1887/735	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	30 29	Wellington Wellington	3 days 1 year	St. Johns Church	87/342		1 March 1887	W. T. Wyatt
57	2 March 1887	George Bilham Lucy Gilchrist		Widower Spinster	Compositor	29 23	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	House of Geo. Bilham, Cuba Street	87/284		2 March 1887	Revd. P. N. Hunter
58	3 March 1887	Samuel Perry Jessie Johns	Samuel Berg Jessie Johns 💍 1887/2634	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	24 19	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Registrars Office Wellington	87/320	William Johns, Father	3 March 1887	W. T. Wyatt
59	4 March 1887	Thomas Hunt Phebe Wallace	Thomas Hunt Phoebe Charlotte Wallace 💍 1887/2572	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	25 23	Wellington Wellington	3 days 4 years	St. Peters Church	87/280		4 March 1887	Venble Archdeacon Stock
60	5 March 1887	Arthur Ernest Pollock Winifred Margaret Seamond	Arthur Ernest Pollock Winifred Margaret Seaward 💍 1887/2573	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	20 24	Wellington Wellington	6 weeks 3 days	St. Peters Church	87/281		5 March 1887	Venble Archdeacon Stock

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).