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 502

District of Wellington 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
181	24 June 1887	Evan Newport Mary Ann Green	Owen Newport Mary Ann Green 💍 1887/62	Bachelor Spinster	Postmaster	24 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	87/1146	24 June 1887	W. T. Wyatt
182	25 June 1887	Charles Henry Thomas Sarah Rebecca Alice Buck	Charles Henry Thomas Bowater Sarah Louisa Alice Buck 💍 1887/3141	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	24 24	Wellington Wellington	2 years 6 years	House of Mr. [illegible]	87/1508	25 June 1887	Rev. P. N. Hunter
183	25 June 1887	Bothwick Thomas Brown Helen Mitchell Pane		Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	41 30	Wellington Wellington	14 months years	House of Mr. Pane Upper Willis Street	87/1449	25 June 1887	Rev. J. Paterson
184	25 June 1887	Augustus James Bradbury Mary Ankekell	Augustus McInnes Bradbury Mary Anketell 💍 1887/3157	Bachelor Spinster	Taxidermist	23 25	Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 days	St. Pauls Cathedral	87/1186	25 June 1887	Rev. John Still
185	27 June 1887	Alexander Ironside Littlejohn Eliza Leo	Alexander Jericho Littlejohn Eliza Lee 💍 1887/395	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	26 21	Wellington Wellington	years 3 weeks	House of Mr. Littlejohn Crofton	87/1995	27 June 1887	Rev. W. H. West
186	27 June 1887	Donald Joseph Cameron Elizabeth Cox	Donald Joseph Cameron Elizabeth Cox 💍 1887/3140	Bachelor Widow	Carrier	26 24	Wellington Wellington	14 days 4 months	St. Mary of the Angels	87/1167	27 June 1887	Rev. P. Kerrigan
187	28 June 1887	John Nancarrow Louisa Penny	John Hancox Louisa Pinny 💍 1887/451	Widower Spinster	Chemist	27 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	Wesleyan Church Taranaki Street	87/2052	28 June 1887	Rev. William Lee
188	28 June 1887	John Knox Hamilton Alice Julia Brooks	John Knox Hamilton Alice Julia Brooks 💍 1887/1162	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	34 28	Wellington Wellington	years years	New Zealander Hotel Manners Street	X	28 June 1887	Rev. J. Paterson
189	29 June 1887	Bernard Robert Stock Mary Florence Cookson	Bernard Robert Stock Mary Florence Cookson 💍 1887/3110	Bachelor Spinster	Insurance Agent	27 27	Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 days	St. Peters Church	87/1111	29 June 1887	Ven. Archdeacon Stock
190	29 June 1887	Carl Emil Looks Florence Marion Cook	Carl Emil Loohs Florence Marion Cook 💍 1887/63	Widower Spinster	Mariner	37 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	87/1147	29 June 1887	W. T. Wyatt
191	30 June 1887	Thomas Shields Helena Sievers	Thomas Shields Helena Sievers 💍 1887/401	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor	22 20	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Marys Cathedral	87/2003	30 June 1887	Rev. J. Mc Namara

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).