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 930

District of Wairau Quarter ending 30 September 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
23	23 July 1887	John Duncan Clunies-Ross Annie W. Ballantyne	John Duncan Clunies-Ross Annie McCallum 💍 1887/516	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 Years 24	Renwick Old Road Nelson	about 6 years about 3 years	The office of the Registrar of Marriages Nelson City	87/2145		23 July 1887	The Registrar of Marriages, Nelson
24	25 July 1887	George Thomas Corbett Hannah Bonnington	George Thomas Corbett Hannah Bonnington 💍 1887/484	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Waiter Domestic Servant	25 21	Blenheim Blenheim	3 1/2 years 2 1/2 years	The Church of the Nativity, Blenheim	87/2119		25 July 1887	Revd. W. O. Robb
25	25 July 1887	Samuel Ridgway Elizabeth Elsmore	Samuel Ridgway Elizabeth Elsmore 💍 1887/494	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker Domestic Servant	26 22	Blenheim Grove Town	about 6 months about 13 years	The House of Robert Fulton, Hutcheson Street, Blenheim	87/2123		28 July 1887	Revd. W. O. Robb
26	3 August 1887	Martin Albert Bleek Gertrude Selina Bates	Martin Albert Cheek Gertrude Selina Cato 💍 1887/491	Bachelor Spinster	Music Teacher	24 23	York Terrace, Blenheim Avondale, Auckland	2 years about 18 months	The Church, Avondale, or The Nativity, Blenheim	87/2120		3 August 1887	Revd. T. S. Grace
27	9 August 1887	Albert Edward Wilkins Mary Ann Law Cargill	Albert Edward Wilkins Mary Ann Law-Cargill 💍 1887/1843	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	20 17	Blenheim Tua Marina	about 13 years 17 years	The Residence of Mr. Annie Cargill, Tua Marina	87/3563	Jane Wilkins, mother; Thomas Gregory and Edward Christopher Wyville, Guardians	9 August 1887	Revd. F. H. Spencer
28	13 August 1887	William Charles Braddock Mary Marple	William Charles Braddock Mary Marple 💍 1887/492	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	24 27	Blenheim Blenheim	12 months 4 years	The House of Mr. W. H. Marple, Manse Road, Blenheim	87/2121		13 August 1887	Revd. T. S. Grace
29	15 August 1887	William O'Brien Bridget Fitzgibbon	William O'Brien Bridget Fitzgibbon 💍 1887/497	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	35 25	Renwick Old Road Blenheim	11 years 3 years	Roman Catholic Church, Blenheim	87/2126		15 August 1887	Revd. J. G. Lewis
30	24 August 1887	James Law Cargill Rebecca Thomas	James Law-Cargill Rebecca Thomas 💍 1887/475	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 19	Tua Marina Tua Marina	21 years 7 years	The Residence of Mr. James Thomas, Tua Marina	87/2128	James Thomas, father	24 August 1887	Revd. F. H. Spencer

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).