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 532

District of Hastings 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
82	6 April 1887	Henry George Warren Alice Leslie Thomson	Henry George Warren Alice Leslie Thomson 💍 1887/3198	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant Domestic	25 20	Tomoana Napier	7 years 2 years	St. John's Church, Napier	87/1254	ab Macdonald, Step father	6 April 1887	Revd de-Merds-Hovell, Episcopalian Minister
83	30 April 1887	Henry Bray Jane Elizabeth Clacket	Henry Bray Jane Elizabeth Clachett 💍 1887/2344	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	26 26	Havelock Havelock	4 years 3 years	Church, Hastings	87/1229		30 April 1887	Revd J. Townsend, Episcopalian Minister
84	17 May 1887	Harry Musgrave Maggie Morrison	Harry Musgrave Maggie Morrison 💍 1887/2346	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	24 26	Hastings Hastings	2 years 2 years	Office of Registrar, Hastings	87/1231		17 May 1887	William C. McLeod, Registrar
85	20 May 1887	Thomas Master Townsend Minnie Catherall	Thomas Masters Townsend Minnie Catherall 💍 1887/2328	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	24 17	Hastings Hastings	9 years 5 years	Residence of Mr. A. Catherall, Hastings	87/1237	Mary Ann Catherall, mother	20 May 1887	Revd Wm. Baumber, Wesleyan Minister
86	21 May 1887	Michael Sullivan Ellen Caple	Michael Sullivan Ellen Caples 💍 1887/2347	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	28 23	Hastings Hastings	6 years 4 years	Catholic Church, Hastings	87/1232		21 May 1887	Revd Father Smyth, Roman Catholic Minister
87	31 May 1887	John William Gull Julia Hood	John William Jull Julia Ann Hood 💍 1887/2345	Bachelor Spinster	Railway guard Domestic	24 28	Hastings Havelock	4 years 3 months	St. Luke's Church, Havelock	87/1230		31 May 1887	Revd J. Townsend, Episcopalian Minister
88	3 June 1887	Thomas Hamill Catherine O'connell	Thomas Hamill Catherine OConnell 💍 1887/2324	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	49 43	Hastings Hastings	10 years 2 years	Catholic Church, Hastings	87/1233		3 June 1887	Revd Father Smyth, Roman Catholic Minister
89	10 June 1887	Alphonsus Mason Phoebe Simmons	Alphesues Mason Phoebe Simmons 💍 1887/1746	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Domestic	24 19	Kereru Kereru	12 months 13 years	Presbyterian Church, Hastings	87/3062	William Simmons, father	10 June 1887	Rev. Alexander Shepherd, Presbyterian Minister
90	24 June 1887	Robert Coyle Bridget Farley	Robert Coyle Bridget Ferley 💍 1887/3673	Widower Spinster	Labourer Domestic	40 35	Hastings Havelock	1 week 12 months	Catholic Church, Hastings	87/2100		27 June 1887	Revd Father Smyth, Roman Catholic 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).