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 604

District of Christchurch 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
140	10 May 1887	Henry Pyke Margaret Harris	Henry Pyke Margaret Harris 💍 1887/3335	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	31 21	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 6 months	Registrars Office	87/1391	10 May 1887	Registrar Marriages J M Mackesson
141	10 May 1887	George Alfred otherwise Known as George Catherine Brown	George Alfred Makey Catharine Brown 💍 1887/3338	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Servant	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 21 years	St Andrews Church	87/1418	10 May 1887	Rev J Mc Intosh Presbyteriane
142	11 May 1887	John Keat Sarah Parsons	John Gray Sarah Ramage 💍 1887/2088	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	26 21	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 4 years	Registrars Office	87/1390	11 May 1887	Registrar Marriages J M Mackesson
143	11 May 1887	Robert McCaffery Margaret Anna Lyness	Robert McCaffery Margaret Ann Lyness 💍 1887/3333	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	33 24	Christchurch Christchurch	12 years 4 years	Registrars Office	87/1389	11 May 1887	Registrar Marriages J M Mackesson
144	11 May 1887	Joseph Foley Julia Moughan	Joseph Foley Julia Maughan 💍 1887/1852	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	31 22	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 14 days	Roman Catholic Church	87/3572	11 May 1887	Rev D Mc Ginty Roman Catholic
145	12 May 1887	John Dowdle Rebecca Hand Back	John Dowdle Rebecca Maud Dack 💍 1887/3332	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	32 25	Christchurch Christchurch	25 years 3 years	Registrars Office	87/1388	12 May 1887	Registrar Marriages J M Mackesson
146	13 May 1887	Herbert Pearce Ronina Elizabeth Jane Maurice	Herbert Pearce Rosina Elizabeth Jane Maurice 💍 1887/3383	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Machinist	26 28	Christchurch Christchurch	16 years 10 years	John Pearces House	87/1429	13 May 1887	Rev W J Williams Wesleyan
147	16 May 1887	Joseph De La Hunt Wilson Hannah Luina	Joseph Delahunt Hannah Quinn 💍 1887/3331	Widower Spinster	Carpenter Servant	36 27	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 6 years	Registrars Office	87/1387	16 May 1887	Registrar Marriages J M Mackesson

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).