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 828

District of THAMES Quarter ending 30 September 1887 Registrar Allexander de Courcy Porterton

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

1 July 1887

Edward Dabb
Agnes Jane Dunlop

Edward Dabb
Agnes Jane Dunlop
💍 1887/301

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Dressmaker

30 years
20 years

Sararu Road
Hope Creek

18 years
18 years

Dwelling house of Mr Thomas Dunlop, Hope Creek

87/1895

Thomas Dunlop, father of minor

1 July 1887

Rev. E. Best, Wesleyan

No	19
Date of Notice	1 July 1887
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Dabb	Agnes Jane Dunlop
	💍 1887/301
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Dressmaker
Age	30 years	20 years
Dwelling Place	Sararu Road	Hope Creek
Length of Residence	18 years	18 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling house of Mr Thomas Dunlop, Hope Creek
Folio	87/1895
Consent	Thomas Dunlop, father of minor
Date of Certificate	1 July 1887
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. Best, Wesleyan

2 July 1887

William Robert Byrne
Frances Mary Stephenson

William Robert Byrne
Frances Mary Stephenson
💍 1887/298

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman
None

26 years
21 years

Auckland
Hope Road

6 days
16 years

Dwelling house at of Mrs Butt, Hope Road

87/1892

2 July 1887

Rev. P. O'Reilly, Roman Catholic

No	20
Date of Notice	2 July 1887
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Robert Byrne	Frances Mary Stephenson
	💍 1887/298
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman	None
Age	26 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Hope Road
Length of Residence	6 days	16 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling house at of Mrs Butt, Hope Road
Folio	87/1892
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 July 1887
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. O'Reilly, Roman Catholic

5 July 1887

Richard Sutcliffe
Margaret McGowan

Richard Sutcliffe
Margaret McGorvan
💍 1887/305

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
None

22 years
18 years

Abraham St.
Abraham St.

7 years
18 years

Registrar's Office, Thames

87/1899

Margaret Insured, Mother of minor

5 July 1887

Edward Honiss, Deputy Registrar

No	21
Date of Notice	5 July 1887
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Sutcliffe	Margaret McGowan
BDM Match (94%)	Richard Sutcliffe	Margaret McGorvan
	💍 1887/305
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	None
Age	22 years	18 years
Dwelling Place	Abraham St.	Abraham St.
Length of Residence	7 years	18 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Thames
Folio	87/1899
Consent	Margaret Insured, Mother of minor
Date of Certificate	5 July 1887
Officiating Minister	Edward Honiss, Deputy Registrar

16 July 1887

George Warne
Ellen Williams

George Warne
Ellen Williams
💍 1887/297

Henry Atkinson
Ellen Williams
💍 1887/1838

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Dressmaker

24 years
20 years

Pollen St.
Edwards St.

8 years
16 years

Dwelling house of Mr Paul Williams, Edwards St.

87/1891

Paul Williams, father of minor

16 July 1887

Rev. V. Lyon, Primitive Methodist

No	22
Date of Notice	16 July 1887
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Warne	Ellen Williams
	💍 1887/297
BDM Match (61%)	Henry Atkinson	Ellen Williams
	💍 1887/1838
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Dressmaker
Age	24 years	20 years
Dwelling Place	Pollen St.	Edwards St.
Length of Residence	8 years	16 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling house of Mr Paul Williams, Edwards St.
Folio	87/1891
Consent	Paul Williams, father of minor
Date of Certificate	16 July 1887
Officiating Minister	Rev. V. Lyon, Primitive Methodist

4 August 1887

Edward Costley Keven
Mary Hancock

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
None

26 years
20 years

Beach Road
Moanatairi Creek

1 year
9 years

Dwelling house of Mrs Hancock, Moanatairi Creek

87/1896

Eliza Hancock, Mother of minor

5 August 1887

Rev. E. Best, Wesleyan

No	23
Date of Notice	4 August 1887
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Costley Keven	Mary Hancock
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	None
Age	26 years	20 years
Dwelling Place	Beach Road	Moanatairi Creek
Length of Residence	1 year	9 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling house of Mrs Hancock, Moanatairi Creek
Folio	87/1896
Consent	Eliza Hancock, Mother of minor
Date of Certificate	5 August 1887
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. Best, Wesleyan

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 1903. 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).