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 238

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1887 Registrar J. M. Maddison

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
8	8 January 1887	John Beatly Rebecca Verner	John Beatty Rebecca Verner 💍 1887/1716	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	26 25	Christchurch Christchurch	1 month 1 year	St. Johns Church	87/347		10 January 1887	Rev H. W. Watson, Church of England
9	9 January 1887	Hugh John McCrostie Alice Jane Ridgway	Hugh John McCrostie Alice Jane Ridgen 💍 1887/2771	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 18	Christchurch Christchurch	1 month 4 days	St. Andrews Church	87/526	George Ridgway, Father	11 January 1887	Rev J. McIntosh, Presbyterian
10	10 January 1887	Frederick Christopher Ridder Ann Mary Rathgen	Frederick Christopher Ridder Anna Mary Rathgen 💍 1887/2782	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 17	Christchurch Halswell	4 days 7 years	St. Marys Church	87/527	Rathgen, Father	11 January 1887	Rev H. East, Church of England
11	11 January 1887	Edward Hardcastle Isabella Beatrice Hamilton	Edward Hardcastle Isabella Beatrice Hamilton 💍 1887/1913	Bachelor Spinster	Press Reporter Teacher	26 30	Christchurch Christchurch	9 months 4 days	Presbyterian Church	87/3633		12 January 1887	Rev J. R. Cairns, Presbyterian
12	12 January 1887	Louis Walter Booker Emily Hood	Louis Walter Hood Agnes Emily Shand 💍 1887/2743	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	45 27	Christchurch Christchurch	11 days 2 years	St. Saviours Church	87/504		13 January 1887	Rev H. B. Cocks, Church of England
13	13 January 1887	John Edman Kate Ford	John Edman Kate Ford 💍 1887/2789	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	39 21	Ship Clio Christchurch	1 month 2 years	Registrars Office	87/528		13 January 1887	Registrar Marriages
14	14 January 1887	William Tunnage Marion Broadbelt	William Finney Edgar Marion Broadbell 💍 1887/2790	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	28 23	Christchurch Avonside	5 days 4 years	Church	87/529		15 January 1887	Rev W. A. Pascoe, Church of England
15	15 January 1887	Charles Taylor Gertrude Robinson	Charles Taylor Gertrude Robinson 💍 1887/2791	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 25	Christchurch Christchurch	1 month 3 days	St. Michaels Church	87/530		17 January 1887	Rev W. Harper, Church of England

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 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).