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 1479

District of Invercargill 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
87	7 November 1887	Frederick Wacke Pope Mary Ann Williamson	Frederick Walter Pope Mary Ann Williamson 💍 1887/1658	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Servant	27 26	Invercargill Clifton	7 years 25 years	Methodist Church Invercargill	87/3373		7 November 1887	Revd James Guy
88	8 November 1887	William Aicken Elizabeth Ervan formerly Dennison	William Aitken Elizabeth Ewen 💍 1887/1656 William McLean Elizabeth McLean 💍 1887/437 William Dunn Elizabeth Brown 💍 1887/1554 William Riddle Elizabeth Mulvay 💍 1887/1896 William Nicholson Elizabeth Hall 💍 1887/1224 William Harvey Elizabeth Cook 💍 1887/765 William Dufty Elizabeth Prior 💍 1887/2250 William Allen Sly Elizabeth Edwards 💍 1887/2615 William Alderson Elizabeth Oates 💍 1887/2560 William Reyland Elizabeth Golden 💍 1887/32 William McLeod Elizabeth Ann Mail 💍 1887/2965 William Milne Elizabeth Ann Buick 💍 1887/3574 William Miller Patrick Elizabeth Emerson 💍 1888/777 William Dixon Elizabeth Susan Cochrane 💍 1887/685 William Milne Emma Elizabeth Piper 💍 1887/3498 William Patterson Elizabeth Emma Martin 💍 1887/3665 George William Price Elizabeth Murray 💍 1887/141	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	45 30	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 4 days	At the house of Mr. Dawson Esk Street Invercargill	87/3371		8 November 1887	The Revd David Gordon
89	10 November 1887	David Long Ellen Horrobin	David Long Ellen Horrobin 💍 1887/1689	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	36 25	Invercargill Invercargill	7 days 4 days	The Presbyterian at the Roman Catholic Church Invercargill	87/3380		14 November 1887	The Revd Thomas McEnroe
90	24 November 1887	James Wright Jessie Craig	James Wright Jessie Craig 💍 1887/1666	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener House keeper	30 29	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 2 days	At the Office of the Registrar Invercargill	87/3358		24 November 1887	A. C. Henderson Registrar
91	26 November 1887	William Sutton Sophia Maddell	William Button Sophia Waddell 💍 1887/1650	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Servant	25 18	Invercargill Woodlands	3 years 18 years	At the house of the Revd John Ferguson Woodlands	87/3364	John Maddell, Father	26 November 1887	The Revd John Ferguson
92	28 November 1887	Charles Augustus Olding Catherine Ann Butler	Charles Augustus Olding Catherine Anne Butler 💍 1887/1690	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 18	Invercargill Kennington	4 months 9 months	The Presbyterian at the Roman Catholic Church Invercargill	87/3381	Martin Butler, Guardian	28 November 1887	The Revd Thomas McEnroe

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).