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 601

District of Christchurch 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
164	2 June 1887	Charles Arthur Osborne Mary Ann Josephine Garner	Charles Arthur Osborne Mary Ann Josephine Garvey 💍 1887/3311	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	34 24	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 20 years	Registrars Office	87/1383		2 June 1887	Registrar Marriages
165	2 June 1887	John Thomas Cook Eliza Kemp	John Thomas Cook Eliza Kemp 💍 1887/3493	Bachelor Spinster	Market Gardener Machinist	21 21	Christchurch Colombo Road	11 years 5 years	Church	87/1373		2 June 1887	Rev. W. Keall
166	2 June 1887	Joseph Kelsall Jane Collett	Joseph Kelsall Sarah Jane Collett 💍 1887/3347	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	44 29	Christchurch Christchurch	6 weeks 4 days	Church	87/1409		2 June 1887	Ven. Arch. Lingard
167	3 June 1887	Jesse Stone Ada Goodwin	Jesse Stone Ada Goodwin 💍 1887/3354	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Porter	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	Church	87/1410		3 June 1887	Ven: Arch: Lingard
168	3 June 1887	Frank Augustus Maurice Gertrude Hart	Frank Augustus Maurice Gertrude Hart 💍 1887/3355	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	25 24	Christchurch Christchurch	11 years 24 years	Church	87/1411		3 June 1887	Ven: Arch: Lingard
169	4 June 1887	Thomas Guy Sarah Nicklaus	Thomas Guy Sarah Nicklans 💍 1887/1943	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 22	Goldhurst Riccarton	5 years 15 years	Church	87/3662		4 June 1887	Rev. C. Bowen
170	4 June 1887	George Smith Mary Everitt	George Smith Mary Everest 💍 1887/1942 George Smith Jane McBeth 💍 1887/3624 George Smith Jane Tryphena Wiggins 💍 1887/1105	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 20	Riccarton Springston	24 years 2 years	Church	87/3661	Daniel Everitt, Father	4 June 1887	Rev. C. Bowen
171	4 June 1887	Samuel Duffy Annie Bridges	Samuel Duffy Annie Bridges 💍 1887/1780	Bachelor Spinster	Confectioner Machinist	23 18	Christchurch Sydenham	5 months 6 months	Church	87/3496	Francis Bridges, Father	4 June 1887	Rev. H. B. Cocks

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).