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 501

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 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
169	13 June 1887	Robert Bury Harriet Page		Bachelor Spinster	Painter	21 18	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	87/1138	Thomas Page, Father	13 June 1887	W. J. Wyatt
170	14 June 1887	Young Jen Bertha Annear	Young Ten Bertha Annear 💍 1887/54	Bachelor Spinster	Shopkeeper	28 21	Wellington Wellington	5 Weeks 6 months	Registrars office Wellington	87/1139		14 June 1887	W. J. Wyatt
171	15 June 1887	Jean Baptiste Grandin Margaret McMillan	John Bain Margaret McMillan 💍 1887/1569	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	35 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	87/1140		15 June 1887	W. J. Wyatt
172	15 June 1887	Alexander Duff Flora Roberts	Alexander Duff Flora Roberts 💍 1887/57 Alexander Maule Mary Jane Roberts 💍 1887/3187	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	27 22	Wellington Wellington	3 months 10 months	Registrars office Wellington	87/1142		15 June 1887	W. J. Wyatt
173	15 June 1887	John Valentine Mary Taft	John Valentine Mary Taft 💍 1887/3156	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Fitter	26 24	Wellington Wellington	15 months years	St. Pauls Cathedral	87/1185		15 June 1887	Revd. John Still
174	16 June 1887	Charles Bingham Capper Margaret Elizabeth Powley	Charles Effingham Capper Margaret Elizabeth Powley 💍 1887/56	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	44 28	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	87/1141		16 June 1887	W. J. Wyatt
175	17 June 1887	William Charles Gasquoine Evangeline Lepina Kimbell	William Charles Gasquoine Evangelina Letitia Kimbell 💍 1887/3152	Bachelor Spinster	Manager Coal Company	27 19	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Marys Cathedral	87/1157	Joseph Loney, Father	17 June 1887	Revd. John McNamara
176	18 June 1887	Robert John Harris Eliza Gore Graham	Robert John Harris Eliza Gore Graham 💍 1887/3130	Widower Spinster	Town Clerk	49 27	Wellington Lower Hutt	4 days years	Presbyterian Church Lower Hutt	87/1149		18 June 1887	Revd. D. T. Rodger
177	23 June 1887	Henry Samuel Burt Ada Copeland	Henry Samuel Burt Ada Copeland 💍 1887/61	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	21 23	Wellington Wainuiomata	2 days years	Registrars office Wellington	87/1145		23 June 1887	W. J. Wyatt
178	23 June 1887	Elijah Maslen Elizabeth Nelson	Elijah Maslen Elizabeth Nelson 💍 1887/59	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker	21 24	Wellington Wellington	years 1 month	Registrars office Wellington	87/1143		23 June 1887	W. J. Wyatt
179	23 June 1887	George Booker Alice Jane Chaslen	George Booker Alice Jane Naslen 💍 1887/60	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	21 21	Wellington Wellington	1 month years	Registrars office Wellington	87/1144		23 June 1887	W. J. Wyatt
180	23 June 1887	Robert Robinson Mary Griggs	Robert Robinson Mary Grigg 💍 1887/3113	Bachelor Spinster	Wood Turner	23 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Griggs College Street	87/1114		23 June 1887	Revd. Chas. Penney

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).