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 130

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
73	21 March 1887	Jeremiah Driscoll Mary Ann Stackpoole	Jeremiah Driscoll Mary Ann Stagpool 💍 1887/2625	Bachelor Spinster	Smith & Farrier	26 23	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	House of Revd. York Street	87/333		21 March 1887	Revd. John Moore
74	21 March 1887	William Benjamin Gody Sarah Ellen Parry	William Benjamin Tooby Sarah Ellen Parry 💍 1887/2617	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 23	Wellington Wellington	2 days 3 days	The Bethel Herbert Street	87/326		21 March 1887	Mr. Samuel Costall
75	21 March 1887	James McIlay Jane Westbrook	James McIlroy Jane Westbrook 💍 1887/2614	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	32 25	Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 days	Registrars Office Wellington	87/323		21 March 1887	W. T. Wyatt
76	23 March 1887	Robert Carson Elizabeth Bain	Robert Corson Elizabeth Bain 💍 1887/2576	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	23 18	Wellington Wellington	6 months 6 months	House of Mrs Bain Holland Street	87/283	Elizabeth Bain, Mother	23 March 1887	Revd. J. K. Elliott
77	28 March 1887	Arthur Withaham Bell Catherine Emily Hughes	Arthur Wilbraham Bell Catherine Emily Hughes 💍 1887/3639	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Engineer	31 21	Wellington Dunedin	2 years 4 years	All Saints Church Dunedin	87/1623		28 March 1887	Revd. A. R. Fitchett
78	28 March 1887	Samuel Galloway Mary Ann Maria Reardon	Daniel Galloway Mary Ann Marie Reardon 💍 1887/3133	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 24	Pahautanui Wellington	3 days 4 years	St. Mary of the Angels Boulcott Street	87/1160		28 March 1887	Revd. P. Kerrigan
79	28 March 1887	William Allenby Elizabeth Edwards	William Allen Sly Elizabeth Edwards 💍 1887/2615	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 25	Wellington Wellington	15 months 17 months	Registrars Office Wellington	87/324		28 March 1887	W. T. Wyatt
80	28 March 1887	James Hepburn Jessie Jane Horne	James Lyneburn Jessie Jane Horne 💍 1887/2640	Bachelor Spinster	Presbyterian Minister	32 26	Wellington Wellington	5 days 1 day	St. Andrews Manse Wellington	87/348		28 March 1887	Revd. G. Y. Ogg
81	29 March 1887	Walter Lancey Cole Alice Power	Walter Lancey Cole Alice Power 💍 1887/2627	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	28 24	Wellington Wellington	11 months 4 years	St. Mary of the Angels Boulcott Street	87/335		29 March 1887	Revd. P. Kerrigan
82	29 March 1887	Edward Petrie Annie Young Cassidy	Edward Petrie Annie Young Cassell 💍 1887/1847	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	31 19	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	St. Andrews Manse Wellington	87/3567	No relation in Colony	12 April 1887	Revd. G. Y. Ogg
83	30 March 1887	Edward Springthorpe Emma Haley	Edward Irving Wilkie Emma Mabey 💍 1887/3144	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	23 18	Upper Hutt Upper Hutt	4 years 4 years	House of Robert Short, Cheviot	87/1172	Robert Short, Father	30 March 1887	Revd. D. D. Rodger
84	31 March 1887	Henry Weston Mary Elizabeth Simpson	Henry Weston Mary Elizabeth Simpson 💍 1887/2313	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	24 21	Wellington Carterton	6 months 6 months	House of Geo. Weston Carterton	87/1262		31 March 1887	Revd. Josiah Ward

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).