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 976

District of Rangiora Quarter ending 30 September 1887 Registrar A. H. Cunningham

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
522	4 July 1887	Thomas Hutchinson Angelina Hodge	Thomas Dennis Nicholas Angelina Hodge 💍 1887/569	Bachelor Widow	Brewer not any	38 years 46 years	Rangiora Rangiora	25 years 10 years	Office of Registrar	87/2198		4 July 1887	A. H. Cunningham, Registrar
523	13 July 1887	Thomas Shaw Carrie Widdowson	Thomas Shaw Carrie Widdowson 💍 1887/570	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	28 years 23 years	Rangiora Rangiora	20 years 5 days	Office of Registrar	87/2199		13 July 1887	A. H. Cunningham, Registrar
524	1 August 1887	Henry Ford Mary Ann Waters	Henry Frost Mary Ann Waters 💍 1887/571	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter not any	23 years 21 years	Rangiora Ashley, Rangiora	23 years 3 years	Office of Registrar	87/2200		1 August 1887	A. H. Cunningham, Registrar
525	11 August 1887	William Sommerville Jemima Smith	William Summerville Jemima Smith 💍 1887/1825 William Hammerich Daisy Smith 💍 1886/2919	Bachelor Spinster	Miller Domestic Servant	50 years 28 years	Southbrook, Rangiora Southbrook	5 months 3 days	Dwelling House of David Adamson	87/3545		11 August 1887	Rev. James McKellar
526	20 August 1887	John Wyness Humphries Margaret Davie	John Wynn Job Humphries Margaret Davie 💍 1887/568	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic Servant	20 years 18 years	Rangiora Ashley, Rangiora	20 years 6 months	Dwelling House of Rev. Richard Lock	87/2197	Frank Humphries, father; Mary Davie, mother	20 August 1887	Rev. Richard Lock
527	27 August 1887	Joseph Charles Todd Alice Agnes Barnes	Joseph Charles Todd Alice Agnes Barrell 💍 1887/1826	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Dressmaker	21 years 23 years	Southbrook, Rangiora Southbrook, Rangiora	21 years 4 years	Church of England	87/3546		27 August 1887	Rev. B. W. Dudley
528	30 August 1887	Dennis Dillon Mary Joyce	William Norman Mary Joyce 💍 1887/3605	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	40 years 22 years	Loburn, Rangiora Loburn	3 days 3 days	Roman Catholic Church	87/2195		30 August 1887	Rev. Daniel O'Connor, Rangiora
529	13 September 1887	George Preece Sarah Clish	George Preece Sarah Clist 💍 1887/572	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer not any	20 years 11 months 18 years	Rangiora Rangiora	18 years 18 years	Office of Registrar	87/2201	James Preece, father; George Clish, father	13 September 1887	A. H. Cunningham, Registrar
530	14 September 1887	Patrick Fitzpatrick Mary Dwyer	Patrick Fitzgibbon Mary Dwyer 💍 1887/567	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	28 years 21 years	North Loburn, Rangiora Rangiora	8 years 4 years	Roman Catholic Church	87/2196		14 September 1887	Rev. Daniel O'Connor, Rangiora

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 1899. 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).