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 988

District of Christchurch 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
213	11 July 1887	Richard Haffarty Emily Florence Hannah Bailey		Bachelor Spinster	Painter	22 22	Christchurch Christchurch	16 Years 16 Years	Office	87/2248		11 July 1887	Rev. R. J. Williams
214	11 July 1887	Frederick Edward Smith Mary Smith	Frederick Edward Smith Mary Smith 💍 1887/1978 William Gardiner Mary Smith 💍 1887/600	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	35 21	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 5 days	Wesleyan	87/2270		11 July 1887	Registrar of Marriages J. Markerson
215	11 July 1887	Samuel Hickey Hannah Bruce	Samuel Dickey Hannah Bruce 💍 1887/602	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser Machinist	33 24	Christchurch Christchurch	14 days 14 days	St. Saviours Church	87/2256		11 July 1887	Rev. R. H. Coads
216	12 July 1887	John Dalton Sarah Knight	John Dalton Sarah Knight 💍 1887/608	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 18	Lincoln Lincoln	25 Years 25 Years	Church of England	87/2262	David Knight, Father	12 July 1887	Rev. A. R. D. Tosswill
217	14 July 1887	William Henry Smith Emily Raot	William Henry Smith Emily East 💍 1887/1833 William George Smith Emily Williams 💍 1887/2451	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer Servant	20 19	Christchurch Christchurch	8 Months 8 Months	Church	87/3552	William Smith, Father of Groom; Thomas Brown, Father of Bride	14 July 1887	Rev. J. Plumlie
218	16 July 1887	James Haulken Mary Jane Palmer	James Hanham Mary Jane Palmer 💍 1887/631	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Servant	20 20	Addington New Brighton	5 Years 2 Years	Presbyterian	87/2271	James Haulken, Father of Groom; Edward Palmer, Father of Bride	16 July 1887	Rev. E. J. Phillips
219	16 July 1887	William Fraser Elizabeth Linton	William Fraser Alice Le Moignan 💍 1887/1248	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 19	Springston Springston	2 Weeks 2 Weeks	Burnham	X	Ann Leggett, Mother	16 July 1887	Church of England
220	18 July 1887	Walter Goulds Emily Grose	Walter Goulds Emily Grove 💍 1887/636	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 22	Christchurch Christchurch	6 days 6 days	Office	87/2272		18 July 1887	Registrar of Marriages J. Markerson

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).