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 257

District of Ashburton 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
493	5 January 1887	William Thoenus Slade Kate Hurley	William Thomas Slade Kate Hurley 💍 1887/1876	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Domestic Servant	28 years 22 years	Ashburton Tinwald	14 months 3 years	Registrar's Office	87/3596		7 January 1887	Charles Ward, Deputy Registrar
494	8 January 1887	Arthur Cookson Agnes Fowler	Arthur Cookson Agnes Fowler 💍 1887/2810	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	22 years 22 years	Makanui Ashburton	3 1/2 years 5 years	St. Stephen's Church	87/572		8 January 1887	Revd. E. R. Otway
495	20 January 1887	David Richard Nelson Miller Anniebry Reid Johnstone	David Richard Wilson Miller Annie Gray Reid Johnston 💍 1887/2811	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant's Clerk	21 years 19 years	Methven Methven	3 years 7 years	Dwelling house of Mr. Johnstone	87/573	Janet Scott Johnstone, Mother	20 January 1887	Revd. D. McNeill
496	17 February 1887	Thomas McDowall Mary Miller	Thomas McDowell Mary Miller 💍 1887/2812	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 years 23 years	Upper Ashburton Makanui	7 years 20 years	Dwelling house of Malcolm Miller	87/574		17 February 1887	Revd. A. M. Beattie
497	26 February 1887	James Lyon Esther Burns	James Lyon Esther Burns 💍 1887/2813	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 years 18 years	Laghmor Ashburton	10 months 10 years	Dwelling house of Widow Burns	87/575	Julia Ann Burns, Mother	26 February 1887	Revd. R. Blake
498	9 March 1887	Henry Reeves Sophia Rose Holbrough	Henry Reeves Sophia Rose Holbrough 💍 1887/2099	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	28 years 20 years	Makanui Ashburton	5 years 12 years	Dwelling house of Joseph Holbrough at Ashburton	87/576	Joseph Holbrough, Father	9 March 1887	Revd. D. McNicole
499	28 March 1887	Carl Frederick Landmann Amy Mary Moss	Carl Friderich Landmann Amy Mary Moss 💍 1887/2945	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	36 years 23 years	Ashburton Ashburton	3 years 5 years	St. Stephen's Church	87/811		28 March 1887	Revd. E. A. Scott

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).