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 1365

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 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
395	28 December 1887	William Armitage Elizabeth Ellen Teas	William Charlesworth Armitage Elizabeth Ann Travis 💍 1887/1373	Bachelor Spinster	School master	26 27	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 3 months	St. Luke's Church	87/3105	28 December 1887	Rev. C. Dallaston
396	28 December 1887	John Russell Wilson Visa Crawford	John Russell Wilson Eliza Crawford 💍 1887/1351	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 28 weeks	House of [illegible]	87/3100	28 December 1887	Rev. C. Dallaston
397	28 December 1887	Francis Burton Annie Burke	Francis Burton Annie Burke 💍 1888/642	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 23 years	Catholic Church	87/3097	28 December 1887	Rev. J. C. Cherrier
398	28 December 1887	John William Tobin Mary Ann Wiggins	John William Tobin Mary Ann Wiggins 💍 1887/1395	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Tailoress	28 23	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 5 months	House of Rev. P. R. Munro	87/3057	28 December 1887	Rev. P. R. Munro
399	28 December 1887	Harry Harries Mary Jane Ward	Harry Harries Mary Jane Ward 💍 1887/1419	Bachelor Widow	Dealer	36 38	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 2 months	Registrar's Office	87/3082	28 December 1887	Registrar of Marriages J. M. Malleson
400	28 December 1887	Frederick Warshimney Margaret Mc. Leare		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	29 28	Christchurch Christchurch	6 days 5 years	Presbyterian Church	87/3123	28 December 1887	Rev. R. Mc. Gregor
401	30 December 1887	George Stephenson Crotty Louisa Knowles	George Stephenson Crotty Louisa Knowles 💍 1887/1421	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	46 44	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 4 days	Registrar's Office	87/3083	30 December 1887	Registrar of Marriages J. M. Malleson
402	30 December 1887	Ernest Godfrey Mary Jacale Goud		Bachelor Spinster	Baker	27 23	Christchurch Christchurch	15 years 13 years	Baptist Chapel, Latimer Terrace	87/3122	30 December 1887	Rev. C. Dallaston
403	30 December 1887	John Evans Mary Dowdle	John Evans Eva Emma Dowdle 💍 1888/639	Widower Spinster	Baker	32 22	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 22 years	House of John Evans, St. Albans Road	87/3104	30 December 1887	Rev. R. Irvine
404	30 December 1887	Edward Stevens Kent Mary Sterling	Edward Stevens Kent Mary Sterling 💍 1888/664	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Cook	28 29	Christchurch Christchurch	21 years 4 years	Roman Catholic Church	87/3131	30 December 1887	Rev. G. Mc. Demision

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).