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 474

District of Hawera Quarter ending 30 June 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
2	12 April 1887	Richard Mumby Emma Joiner	Richard Mumby Emma Joiner 💍 1887/1891	Widower Spinster	Laborer	33 18	Hawera Hawera	11 Years 9 months	at the residence of Richard Mumby, Camberwell Street, Hawera	87/3587	Frederick George Joiner, father	12 April 1887	W. H. Root
3	25 April 1887	Tom Smart Mary Jane Bullock	Tom Smart Mary Jane Bullock 💍 1887/1890	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	29 18	Hawera Hawera	2 Years England 1 Year Hawera	Church of England	87/3586	William Edward James Bullock, Father	25 April 1887	W. H. Root
4	26 April 1887	Arthur Henry Duff Cecelia Anna Brightwell Dixon	Arthur Henry Duff Cecelia Anna Brightwell Dixon 💍 1887/3081	Widower Spinster	Commission Agent Milliner	33 20	Hawera Hawera	6 Years 5 Years	Registrars Office, Hawera	87/1056	Sam Dixon, Father	26 April 1887	J. F. Martin
5	12 May 1887	George Thomas Bayly Alfrida Gertrude Welsh	George Thomas Bayly Alfreda Gertrude Welsh 💍 1887/3094	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 20	Mokoia Wanganui	11 Years 5 Years	Christ Church, Victoria Avenue, Wanganui	87/1068	Louisa Dawson Welsh, Wanganui, mother	12 May 1887	J. L. Tudor
6	13 May 1887	Thomas Allan Isabella Ross	Thomas Allan Isabella Ross 💍 1887/3082	Widower Spinster	Farmer Housekeeper	45 32	Whakamara Whakamara	7 Years 1 Year	At the residence of the Revd. Alexander McLean, Regent Street, Hawera	87/1057		13 May 1887	Alexander McLean
7	28 May 1887	Walter Reuben Clark Eliza Jane Burlace	Walter Bentham Clark Eliza Jane Burlace 💍 1887/1868	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Dressmaker	25 23	Hawera Hawera	11 months England 8 months Hawera	Church of England	87/3588		28 May 1887	W. H. Root

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).