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 161

District of Hastings 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
72	6 January 1887	Joseph Franklin Ellen Margaret Brumwell	Joseph Franklin Hester Margaret Brunskill 💍 1887/104	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman Domestic	27 21	Tomoana Hawkes Bay Tomoana Hawkes Bay	3 years 12 months	Residence of Mr. Allen Tomoana	87/381		6 January 1887	Revd. Wm. Nicol Presbyterian Minister
73	7 January 1887	Daniel O'Reilly Julia O'Neill	Daniel OReilly Julia ONeill 💍 1887/2325	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Dressmaker	29 22	Hastings Hawkes Bay Hastings Hawkes Bay	10 years 3 years	Catholic Church	87/1234		7 January 1887	Revd. Father Smythe Roman Catholic Minister
74	18 January 1887	William Meeth Mary Elizabeth Cheetham	William Crozier Mary Elizabeth Fordham 💍 1887/170	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	24 20	Hastings Hawkes Bay Hastings Hawkes Bay	12 years 18 months	Presbyterian Church Havelock	87/382	Annie Ryden (Sister)	18 January 1887	Revd. Wm. Nicol Presbyterian Minister
75	19 January 1887	John Henry Brown Elizabeth Lopoi	John Needes Bowerman Elizabeth Mahon 💍 1887/3011 John Hutton Elizabeth Thompson 💍 1888/687	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic	47 32	Pakipaki Hawkes Bay Pakipaki Hawkes Bay	3 days 5 weeks	Catholic Church	87/384		19 January 1887	Revd. Peter Lefevre Roman Catholic Minister
76	22 January 1887	John O'Hara Annie Dolan	John OHara Annie Dolan 💍 1887/2326	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	29 24	Hastings Hawkes Bay Hastings Hawkes Bay	6 months 1 week	Catholic Church	87/1235		22 January 1887	Revd. Father Smythe Roman Catholic Minister
77	1 February 1887	James Walker Jane Stuart-Keith	James Walker Jane Stuart Keith 💍 1887/1895	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Domestic	30 22	Maraekakaho Hawkes Bay Hastings Hawkes Bay	7 years 8 years	Residence of Wm. Keith - Hastings	87/3615		1 February 1887	Revd. Hubert Maclean Episcopalian Minister
78	7 February 1887	Daniel O'Brien Mary Ann Twomey	Daniel O'Brien Mary Ann Twomey 💍 1887/2327	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	25 24	Hastings Hawkes Bay Hastings Hawkes Bay	3 years 3 years	Catholic Church	87/1236		7 February 1887	Revd. Father Smythe Roman Catholic Minister
79	7 February 1887	William Thurston Sarah Puddle	William Thurlow Sarah Puddle 💍 1887/2670 William Dunkin Sarah Little 💍 1887/2461	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	23 21	Tomoana Hawkes Bay Tomoana Hawkes Bay	4 months 2 weeks	Registrars Office Hastings	87/349		7 February 1887	William McLeod Registrar
80	21 February 1887	Arthur Sherlock Mary Ann Beale	Arthur Sherlock Mary Ann Beale 💍 1887/2669	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Cleaner Domestic	26 20	Hastings Hawkes Bay Ormondville Hawkes Bay	18 months 6 months	Church of England Ormondville	87/384	John Beale (Father)	24 February 1887	Revd. Mr. Webb Episcopalian Minister
81	25 March 1887	John Hustleman Blow Janet Margaret Carswell		Bachelor Spinster	Baker Domestic	26 19	Havelock Hawkes Bay Hastings Hawkes Bay	6 years 9 years	Residence of D. Harper	87/383	Jane Carswell (Mother)	25 March 1887	Revd. Alexd. Shepherd Presbyterian Minister

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).