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 207

District of Greymouth 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	15 January 1887	William Card Margaret King	William Cord Margaret King 💍 1887/2049 William Healy Margaret Ann King 💍 1888/613 William Clark Jessie King 💍 1887/2630 William Beatty Mary King 💍 1887/2816	Bachelor Widow	Contractor None	53 years 47 years	Greymouth Greymouth	21 days 20 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Greymouth	87/463		15 January 1887	Denis Carey, Roman Catholic Minister
2	26 January 1887	Hugh Gordon Kellas Henrietta Sarah Coates	Hugh Gordon Kellas Henrietta Sarah Coates 💍 1887/2068	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Manager None	31 years 22 years	Greymouth Greymouth	3 days 3 years England	Church of England, Greymouth	87/466		26 January 1887	Thomas Buleing Maclean, Church of England Minister
3	3 February 1887	Peter Martin Hevorsen Isabella Cairns	Peter Anderson Isabella King 💍 1888/824	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter None	29 years 22 years	Cobden Greymouth	9 months at the residence of Peter Cairns 3 years Alexander Street, Greymouth	Residence of Peter Cairns, Alexander Street, Greymouth	87/464		3 February 1887	C. Pertuis, Roman Catholic Minister
4	4 February 1887	Peter Martin Hevorsen Elizabeth Bridget Cain	Peter Martin Levorsen Elizabeth Bridget Cain 💍 1887/2060	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter None	29 years 22 years	Cobden Greymouth	9 months at the residence of Patrick Cain 3 years Alexander Street, Greymouth	Residence of Patrick Cain, Alexander Street, Greymouth	87/464		4 February 1887	C. Pertuis, Roman Catholic Minister
5	19 February 1887	Patrick Casey Ellen Minehan	Patrick Casey Ellen Minohar 💍 1887/2067 Patrick Shea Ellen Bren 💍 1887/134 Patrick Murray Ellen McKay 💍 1887/3407 Patrick Kerin Ellen Hogan 💍 1887/127	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer None	30 years 20 years	Brunner Town Brunner Town	11 years 9 weeks	Roman Catholic Chapel, Greymouth	87/465	Hanorah Minehan, mother	19 February 1887	Denis Carey, Roman Catholic Minister
6	19 March 1887	Richard Blake Beatrice Alice Bellott	Richard Blake Beatrice Alice Elliott 💍 1887/2069	Bachelor Spinster	Gold miner Dressmaker	45 years 24 years	Rutherglen Greymouth	20 years 5 months at the White Horse Hotel	Church of England, Greymouth	87/469		19 March 1887	Thomas Buleing Maclean, Church of England Minister
7	22 March 1887	Alan Stanley Jones Anne Martha Moss	Alan Stanley Jones Annie Martha Moss 💍 1887/2071	Bachelor Spinster	Clergyman None	28 years 22 years	Reefton Greymouth	15 months 17 years England	Church of England, Greymouth	87/469		22 March 1887	Thomas Buleing Maclean, Church of England Minister
8	22 March 1887	George Maleinson Catherine Hogan	George Mallinson Catherine Hogan 💍 1887/2070 George Dale Catherine McGregor 💍 1887/2239	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher None	28 years 21 years	Dungaree Dungaree	15 years 10 months England	Church of England, Greymouth	87/468		22 March 1887	Thomas Buleing Maclean, Church of England 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).