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 1295

District of Kaikoura Quarter ending 31 December 1887 Registrar Frederic James Robertslaw

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
148	1 October 1887	John Sharp Erica Catherine Collins	John Sharp Erica Catherine Collins 💍 1887/3300	Bachelor Spinster	Commission Agent none	26 years 20 years	Nelson Kaikoura	26 years 3 years	St James Church Kowhai Kaikoura	87/2935	Arthur Shuckburgh Collins father of bride	1 October 1887	Walter Herbert Kay
149	1 October 1887	Robert John Parsons Lucy Tottenham Flower	Robert John Parsons Helen Sutherland McRae 💍 1887/3301	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer none	24 years 23 years	Amberley Kaikoura	4 years 9 years	Church of England Kaikoura	87/2936		1 October 1887	Walter Herbert Kay
150	1 October 1887	Charles Wood Francis Lucy Tottenham Flower	Charles Wood Frances Lucy Tottenham Flower 💍 1887/3278	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer none	24 years 22 years	Kaikoura Kaikoura	5 years 7 years	Church of England Kaikoura	87/2937		21 October 1887	Walter Herbert Kay
151	25 October 1887	Douglas Taylor Mary Jane Clarke	Douglas Taylor Mary Jane Clarke 💍 1887/3281 Peter Alexander Crawford Mary Jane Clarke 💍 1887/2257	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	24 years 21 years	Kaikoura Kaikoura	6 years 6 months	Office of Registrar	87/2940		25 October 1887	Registrar Kaikoura
152	1 November 1887	James Panton Anna Georgina Chrission King	James Panton Anna Georgina Chrission King 💍 1887/3282	Bachelor Widow	Baker Domestic	33 years 45 years	Kaikoura Kaikoura	1 year 4 years	Office of Registrar	87/2941		1 November 1887	Registrar Kaikoura
153	10 November 1887	Dugald McCallum Henrietta Lyford	Dugald McCallum Henrietta Lyford 💍 1887/3280	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	30 years 24 years	Kaikoura Kaikoura	8 months 2 years	Presbyterian Church Kaikoura	87/2939		10 November 1887	William Meara
154	1 December 1887	Alexander Adair Blanche Stack	Alexander Adair Blanche Stack 💍 1887/3283	Bachelor Widow	Laborer Domestic	29 years 27 years	Kaikoura Kaikoura	4 years 23 years	Office of Registrar	87/2942		1 December 1887	Registrar Kaikoura
155	1 December 1887	Joseph Mary Harkes Mary Ellen Tate	Joseph Mary Hailes Mary Ellen Tate 💍 1887/1948	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	23 years 20 years	Kaikoura Kaikoura	22 years 3 months	Roman Catholic Church Kaikoura			13 December 1887	Patrick Ahern

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).