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 304

District of 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1	8 January 1887	David Main Agnes Kennedy	David Main Agnes Kennedy 💍 1887/2135	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	37 years 37 years	Dunedin Mosgiel	6 weeks 2 years	House of Jessie Dunedin	87/620	8 January 1887	Rev. J. M. McKerrow
2	2 February 1887	William McIndoe Agnes Jane Reid	William McIndoe Agnes Jane Reid 💍 1887/2963	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 years 22 years	Otakia Otakia	3 months 22 years	House of James Reid Otakia	87/814	2 February 1887	Rev. Geo Hall
3	11 February 1887	William Corkill Margaret Cullen	William Corkill Margaret Cullen 💍 1887/2188 William Martin Margaret Wallace 💍 1887/738 William Cord Margaret King 💍 1887/2049 William O'Connell Margaret Reid 💍 1888/3401 William Miller Margaret Davies 💍 1888/258 William Neill Margaret Boatwood 💍 1888/847 William Dickson Margaret Williamson 💍 1887/3393 William Murray Margaret Godfrey 💍 1887/3084	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 years 28 years	East Taieri East Taieri	3 days 28 years	House of James Cullen of East Taieri	87/109	11 February 1887	Rev. J. M. McKerrow
4	15 February 1887	William Samuel McClure Rachel Stewart	William Samuel McClure Rachel Stewart 💍 1887/2962	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 years 25 years	Otautau East Taieri	2 weeks 3 months	House of Andrew Stewart of East Taieri	87/813	15 February 1887	Rev. J. M. McKerrow
5	23 February 1887	James Fraser Jane Currie	James Fraser Jane Currie 💍 1887/2189	Widower Spinster	Platelayer	43 years 27 years	North Taieri North Taieri	12 years 16 years	House of Williamson Currie of North Taieri	87/810	23 February 1887	Rev. J. M. Sutherland
6	7 March 1887	Thomas Allan Mary Boal formerly Widow	Thomas Allan Isabella Ross 💍 1887/3082	Bachelor Widow	Farm Labourer	39 years 30 years	North Taieri East Taieri	3 months 1 month	Presbyterian Church East Taieri		7 March 1887	Rev. W. M. Will
7	7 March 1887	Samuel Henry Burnard Isabella Kirk	Samuel Henry Burnard Isabella Kirk 💍 1887/2956	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 years 27 years	East Taieri Mosgiel	2 years 3 years	House of John Kirk of Mosgiel	87/812	7 March 1887	Rev. W. M. Morley
8	24 March 1887	Robert Kyle Margaret Baxter	Robert Kyle Margaret Baxter 💍 1887/2216	Widower Spinster	Labourer	30 years 30 years	Otautau Dunedin	2 months 3 days	House of Mrs Kyle Dunedin		24 March 1887	Rev. W. M. Morley

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).