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 544

District of Wairau Quarter ending 30 June 1887 Registrar John James Wardenshaw

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
10	10 April 1887	Peter Frolove Amy Mary Anne Goulter	Peter Trolove Amy Mary Anne Goulter 💍 1887/3436	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	22 22	Woodbank, Clarence Hawkesbury, Wairau	16 years 17 years	The Residence of Cyrus Goulter, Hawkesbury, Wairau.	87/1274		9 April 1887	Rev. W. G. Lewis
11	11 April 1887	George Small Rose Ellen Potter	George Small Rose Ellen Potter 💍 1887/3454	Widower Divorcee	Labourer	45 23	Kaituna Valley Grove Town	23 years 12 years	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim.	87/1276		18 April 1887	The Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim.
12	12 April 1887	Samuel Henry Bassett Ruth Potter	Samuel Henry Bassett Ruth Potter 💍 1887/3455	Widower Spinster	Labourer	37 17	Redwood Town Redwood Town	12 years 12 years	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim.	87/1277	Robert Potter, father.	18 April 1887	The Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim.
13	13 April 1887	John Moran Mary Hickey	John Moran Mary Hickey 💍 1887/3447	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	22 22	Maxwell Road, Blenheim Blenheim	22 years 22 years	Roman Catholic Church, Blenheim.	87/1275		20 April 1887	Rev. G. G. Lewis
14	20 April 1887	John Barker Luscombe Alice Mary Andrews	John Barter Luscombe Alice Mary Andrews 💍 1887/3457	Bachelor Spinster	Confectioner	21 18	Blenheim Blenheim	16 months 4 years	The House of Joseph Andrews, Charles Street, Blenheim.	87/1279	Joseph Richard Andrews, father.	26 April 1887	Rev. John Crump
15	17 May 1887	Frederick William Poole Jane Lloyd	Frederick William Poole Jane Lloyd 💍 1887/3456	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	28 22	Blenheim Blenheim	about 18 months about 2 months	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim.	87/1278		19 May 1887	The Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim.
16	17 May 1887	George Frederick Saunders Elizabeth Lawrance	George Frederick Saunders Elizabeth Lawrance 💍 1887/3193	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Dressmaker	29 24	Blenheim near Andrews, Blenheim	6 years about 11 years	The House of Mr David Lawrance, Blenheim.	87/1272		17 May 1887	Rev. J. S. Grace.
107	9 April 1887	Sholto Gardiner Elizabeth Alice Pope	Sholto Gardiner Elizabeth Alice Pope 💍 1887/3190	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	21 years 18	Okaramio, Kaituna Onamalutu	21 years 1 year	The House of Mr R. W. Pope, Onamalutu	87/1269	Robert William Pope, father.	9 April 1887	Rev. Edward Shears.

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).