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 175

District of Wairau 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
1	10 February 1887	James Roberts Eleanor Foster	James John Roberts Eleanor Constance Foster 💍 1887/2699	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 Years 21 Years	Howick Street, Blenheim Weld Street, Blenheim	15 Months 12 Years	The House of John Foster, Weld Street, Blenheim	87/408		10 February 1887	Revd. F. S. Grace
2	12 February 1887	James Henry Scott Jane Thomas	James Henry Scott Jane Thomas 💍 1887/2694	Bachelor Spinster	Confectioner	29 Years 24 Years	Blenheim Blenheim	about 15 Years about 15 Years	The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim	87/404		12 February 1887	The Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim
3	15 March 1887	Walter Hastie Middlemiss Eliza Bencoe	Walter Hastie Middlemiss Eliza Vercoe 💍 1887/2700	Bachelor Spinster	Flax Dresser	24 Years 19 Years	Middle Renwick Road Middle Renwick Road	5 Years 9 Years	The House of Mr. William Joseph Bencoe, Grove Town	87/409	Philip Bencoe, Father	15 March 1887	Revd. F. S. Grace
4	21 March 1887	James Baldick Edith Electra Gibson	James Baldick Edith Electra Gibson 💍 1887/2698	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 Years 17 Years	Grove Town Grove Town	about 11 Years 17 Years	The Wesleyan Church, Blenheim	87/407	George Gibson, Father	21 March 1887	Revd. John Crump.
5	22 March 1887	Maurice Ahern Elizabeth Longman	Maurice Ahern Jane Elizabeth Longman 💍 1887/2701	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	51 Years 40 Years	Blenheim Blenheim	19 Years 12 Years	The House of Mr. Maurice Ahern, Seymour Street, Blenheim	87/410		22 March 1887	Revd. W. F. Lewis.
6	24 March 1887	Alfred Fedor Lock Annie Dumble	Alfred Fedor Lichner Annie Dumble 💍 1887/2702	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	29 Years 26 Years	Blenheim Blenheim	11 Years 10 Years	The House of Mr. Dumble, Maxwell Road, Blenheim	87/411	John Dumble, Father	24 March 1887	Revd. W. O. Robb
7	28 March 1887	William Rayner Catherine Cameron	William Rayner Catherine Cameron 💍 1887/2703	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	33 Years 26 Years	Kekirangeu Grove Town	13 Years 26 Years	The Presbyterian Church, Blenheim	87/412		28 March 1887	Revd. W. O. Robb
8	28 March 1887	Sydney Thomas Haylock Maggie Mabel Haylock	Sydney Thomas Hoyle Wall Maggie Mabel Hassard Keys 💍 1887/2695	Bachelor Spinster	Furniture Dealer	21 Years 23 Years	Blenheim Blenheim	16 Years 6 days	The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim	87/405		28 March 1887	The Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).