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 1170

District of Auckland Quarter ending 1 October 1887 to 31 December 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
488	26 November 1887	William Kelly Mary Jane Somerville	William Kelly Mary Jane Somerville 💍 1887/936	Bachelor Spinster	Master	24 22	Newton Pakuranga	2 years 3 years	Church, Newton	87/2601	26 November 1887	Rev E. O'Hara, Roman Catholic
489	26 November 1887	Alfred Stephen Litten Margaret Eliza Gill	Alfred John Litten Margaret Eliza Gill 💍 1887/953	Widower Spinster	School master	26 27	Pakuranga Pukekohe	3 years 27 years	Dwelling of John Reith, Pukekohe	87/2610	26 November 1887	Rev J. Law, Wesleyan
490	28 November 1887	Alexander Thomas Craig Mary Ann Rose	Alexander Thomas Craig Mary Ann Ross 💍 1887/901	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	27 28	Brown Street Surrey Street	13 years 28 years	Dwelling of Murdoch Road	87/2564	28 November 1887	Rev W. F. Lewis, Congregationalist
491	5 December 1887	Francis of Totara Kate Mary Riding	Francis Ogston Kate Mary Ridings 💍 1887/922	Widower Spinster	M.D. & M.R.C.S. (Aberdeen)	42 24	Dunedin Auckland	2 years 20 years	Bishop's Chapel, Parnell	87/2562	5 December 1887	Right Rev W. G. Cowie, Auckland Bishop
492	1 December 1887	Robert Clyde Gilmour Annie Kennedy	Robert Clyde Annie Kennedy 💍 1887/974	Widower Spinster	Farmer	43 21	Birkenhead Parnell	14 years 7 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	87/2640	1 December 1887	J. Owen Lord, Registrar
493	2 December 1887	Thomas Moore Bryant Mary Ann Owen	Thomas Moore Bryant Mary Ann Owens 💍 1887/982	Bachelor Widow	Provision Dealer	49 34	Karangahape Road Auckland	4 years 11 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	87/2641	2 December 1887	J. Owen Lord, Registrar
494	3 December 1887	Charles Henry Ferris Rebecca Speakman	Charles Henry Ferris Rebecca Speakman 💍 1887/912	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	30 21	Mangere Mangere	7 years 12 years	Dwelling of Wm Speakman, Mangere	87/2574	3 December 1887	Rev H. J. Miller, Congregationalist

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).