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 611

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
84	5 April 1887	Edwin Hopping Martha Jane Rusbridge	Edwin Hopping Martha Jane Rusbridge 💍 1887/1875	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	18 18	Woolston Woolston	5 years 10 years	Christchurch	87/3595	Charles Hopping, Henry Frederick Rusbridge, Fathers	5 April 1887	Rev. T. Merton
85	5 April 1887	John Moles Mary Ann Dale	John Moles Mary Ann Dale 💍 1887/1783	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	35 25	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 3 years	Christchurch	87/3498		5 April 1887	Rev. J. Plenslie
86	5 April 1887	Harry Forward Margaret McLean Howard	Harry Forward Margaret McLean Stewart 💍 1887/3321	Bachelor Spinster	Barman	30 22	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 3 years	Office	87/1401		5 April 1887	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Paulkerson
87	5 April 1887	Watson Francis Cooper Delia Frances Jane Ypstein	Watson Francis Cooper Lelia Frances Lane 💍 1887/3379	Widower Spinster	Compositor	36 27	Christchurch Christchurch	27 years 16 years	Rev. G. Bond's Pastorage	87/1435		5 April 1887	Rev. G. Bond, Wesleyan
88	6 April 1887	Robert McClelland Mary Jane McGuire	Robert McClelland Mary Jane McGuire 💍 1887/3350	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	29 24	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 16 years	In the Roman Catholic Church, Christchurch	87/1429		6 April 1887	Rev. L. McGuinaty, Roman Catholic
89	6 April 1887	Thomas Wilkins Jane Woodhouse		Bachelor Spinster	Woolclasser Dressmaker	22 20	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 10 years	Church	87/1444	Walter Henry Birchly, Garratt, Fathers	6 April 1887	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Church of England
90	7 April 1887	William Allen Jewell Helene Ada Romonf	William Allen Jewell Helene Ada Esnouf 💍 1887/3361	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker Dressmaker	24 24	Christchurch St. Albans	24 years 14 years	Church	87/1433		7 April 1887	Rev. W. Z. Gillam, Church of England
91	9 April 1887	Luke Coleman Mary Barklee	Luke Coleman Mary Barkle 💍 1887/3320	Bachelor Spinster	Dealer Servant	28 22	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 12 years	Registrar Office	87/1400		9 April 1887	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Paulkerson

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).