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 046

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 1887

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

22 January 1887

Stephen Rout
Mary Ann Field

Stephen Rout
Mary Ann Field
💍 1887/2010

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

51
28

Auckland
Auckland

15 years
15 years

Registrar's Office

87/144

22 January 1887

J. Owen Lord, Reg

No	31
Date of Notice	22 January 1887
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Stephen Rout	Mary Ann Field
	💍 1887/2010
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	51	28
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	15 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	87/144
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 January 1887
Officiating Minister	J. Owen Lord, Reg

22 January 1887

Arthur Anderson
Mary Nesbitt

Arthur Anderson
Mary Nesbitt
💍 1887/2012

Bachelor
Spinster

Fruiterer

37
22

Manukau Road
Auckland

7 years
3 years

Registrar's Office, Auckland

87/145

22 January 1887

J. Owen Lord, Reg

No	32
Date of Notice	22 January 1887
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Anderson	Mary Nesbitt
	💍 1887/2012
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fruiterer
Age	37	22
Dwelling Place	Manukau Road	Auckland
Length of Residence	7 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office, Auckland
Folio	87/145
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 January 1887
Officiating Minister	J. Owen Lord, Reg

22 January 1887

Charles Henry Howell
Jane Elizabeth Fallagher

Charles Henry Howell
Annie Elizabeth Gallagher
💍 1887/2435

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

29
22

Grey Street
Auckland

3 years
9 years

St. Benedict's Church

87/118

24 January 1887

Rev. C. Downey, R.C.

No	33
Date of Notice	22 January 1887
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Henry Howell	Jane Elizabeth Fallagher
BDM Match (92%)	Charles Henry Howell	Annie Elizabeth Gallagher
	💍 1887/2435
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	29	22
Dwelling Place	Grey Street	Auckland
Length of Residence	3 years	9 years
Marriage Place	St. Benedict's Church
Folio	87/118
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1887
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. Downey, R.C.

24 January 1887

John Hayes
Mary O'Connell

John Hayes
Mary O'Connell
💍 1887/2434

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

30
23

Victoria Street
Queen Street

8 years
8 years

St. Benedict's Church

87/119

24 January 1887

Rev. R. McSulligan, R.C.

No	34
Date of Notice	24 January 1887
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Hayes	Mary O'Connell
BDM Match (84%)	John Hayes	Mary O'Connell
	💍 1887/2434
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Victoria Street	Queen Street
Length of Residence	8 years	8 years
Marriage Place	St. Benedict's Church
Folio	87/119
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1887
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. McSulligan, R.C.

24 January 1887

George Nathan Mudford
Elizabeth Mary Benallack

George Nathan Mudford
Elizabeth Mary Benallack
💍 1887/2455

Bachelor
Spinster

Bootmaker

27
24

Grey Street
Auckland

27 years
24 years

Dwelling of Rev. A. J. Smith

87/138

24 January 1887

Rev. A. J. Smith, Primitive Methodist

No	35
Date of Notice	24 January 1887
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Nathan Mudford	Elizabeth Mary Benallack
	💍 1887/2455
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bootmaker
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Grey Street	Auckland
Length of Residence	27 years	24 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling of Rev. A. J. Smith
Folio	87/138
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1887
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. J. Smith, Primitive Methodist

24 January 1887

John Gibson Hamilton
Jane La Roche

John Gibson Hamilton
Jane La Roche
💍 1887/2449

Bachelor
Spinster

Fitter

28
26

Egbert Terrace
Parnell

22 years
26 years

Dwelling of Mr. J. B. Phillips

87/108

24 January 1887

Rev. J. B. Monro, Presbyterian

No	36
Date of Notice	24 January 1887
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Gibson Hamilton	Jane La Roche
	💍 1887/2449
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fitter
Age	28	26
Dwelling Place	Egbert Terrace	Parnell
Length of Residence	22 years	26 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling of Mr. J. B. Phillips
Folio	87/108
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1887
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. B. Monro, Presbyterian

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 1903. 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).