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 627

District of Ashburton 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
500	21 April 1887	William Borrish Bessie Heard	William Norrish Bessie Heard 💍 1887/3513	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	24 years 22 years	Ashburton Ashburton	2 years 8 days	Private dwellinghouse of Robert Borrish at Ashburton	87/1469		21 April 1887	Revd. D. McNicoll
501	3 May 1887	William Dwyer Mary McCasker	William Dwyer Mary McCosker 💍 1887/3516	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	42 years 24 years	Wakanui Ashburton	6 months 3 years	Roman Catholic Church	87/1472		3 May 1887	Revd. Stephen Chastagnon
502	7 May 1887	Edward Henry Fisher Mary Ann Lee	Edward Henry Fisher Mary Ann Gee 💍 1887/3532	Bachelor Spinster	Weaver Factory Hand	24 years 19 years	Allenton Allenton	9 months 2 years	Registrars Office	87/1464	Samuel Burry Lee Father	7 May 1887	J. Ward, Registrar
503	11 May 1887	Charles Schutty Mary Ann Castle	Charles Schultz Mary Ann Castle 💍 1887/3531	Bachelor Spinster	Rail-maker Domestic Servant	30 years 21 years	Longbeach Waterton	12 years 1 month	Registrars Office	87/1463		11 May 1887	J. Ward, Registrar
504	19 May 1887	Thomas Henry Hillyer Beak Martha Annie Felton	Thomas Henry Hellyer Beddek Martha Annie Felton 💍 1887/3535	Bachelor Spinster	Police Officer	23 years 19 years	Ashburton Ashburton	2 1/2 years 1 1/2 years	St. Stephen's Church	87/1467	Henry William Felton Father	19 May 1887	Revd. E. A. Scott
505	21 May 1887	Samuel Rountree Catherine Armstrong	Samuel Rountree Catherine Armstrong 💍 1887/3533	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Dressmaker	25 years 17 years	Tinwald Tinwald	3 years 6 years	Registrar's Office	87/1465	John Armstrong Father	21 May 1887	J. Ward, Registrar
506	11 June 1887	Ernest Edward Jaster Amelia Taylor	Ernest Edward Tasker Amelia Taylor 💍 1887/3514 August Schroder Amelia Taylor 💍 1888/557	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Tailoress	20 years 19 years	Ashburton Trevor ton	7 years 13 years	Private dwellinghouse of James Jaster, at Ashburton	87/1470	James Jaster Father, James Taylor Father	11 June 1887	Revd. D. McNicoll
507	15 June 1887	Frank Boal Evangeline Edge	Frank Soal Evangeline Edge 💍 1887/3534	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	24 years 18 years	Waterton Waterton	10 years 7 years	Registrar's Office	87/1466	William Edge Father	15 June 1887	J. Ward, Registrar
508	16 June 1887	William Boal Sarah Ann Ohane	William Soal Sarah Ann O'Kane 💍 1887/1793 William Bowis Sarah Ann Quigley 💍 1887/1466 William Nicholas Sarah Ann Hibberd 💍 1887/73 William Goodall Sarah Edith Evans 💍 1887/2363 William Nohar Sarah O'Hara 💍 1887/2880	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	32 years 23 years	Waterton Ashburton	10 years 3 months	Roman Catholic Church	87/3509		16 June 1887	Revd. Stephen Chastagnon

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).