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 886

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 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
204	12 July 1887	Richard Williams Ellen Minnie Ellison	Richard Williams Ellen Minnie Ellison 💍 1887/453	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	28 20	Wellington Taranaki Street	4 years	House of Mr. Ellison, Taranaki Street	87/2054	Thomas Henry Ellison, Father	12 July 1887	Rev. Charles Penney
205	15 July 1887	Generam Gramond Augusta Ann Williams	Genereux Grouhand Augusta Ann Williams 💍 1887/3275	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	29 21	Wellington Sydney Street	4 years	House of Rev. Mr. Hunter, Sydney Street	87/2064		15 July 1887	Rev. P. N. Hunter
206	18 July 1887	George Greaves Jane Walsh	George Graves Jane Walsh 💍 1887/415	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	34 26	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Registrars office, Wellington	87/2017		18 July 1887	Mr. I. Wyatt
207	18 July 1887	Charles Cornells Jessie Eliza Overend	Charles Cornwell Jessie Eliza Overend 💍 1887/452	Bachelor Spinster	Expressman	22 22	Wellington Kaiwarra	4 years 4 years	House of Mr. Overend, Kaiwarra	87/2053		18 July 1887	Rev. William Gee
208	19 July 1887	Frank Albert Saylor Emma Morgan	Frank Albert Taylor Emma Morgan 💍 1887/3264	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 21	Wellington Tawa Flat	3 days 4 years	House of Mr. James Taylor, Tawa Flat	87/2058		19 July 1887	Rev. W. S. Potter
209	22 July 1887	John Cole Alice Ann Parry	John Cole Alice Ann Parry 💍 1887/418	Widower Spinster	Settler	50 34	Wellington Wellington	4 days 4 years	Registrars office, Wellington	87/2020		22 July 1887	Mr. I. Wyatt
210	22 July 1887	Herbert James Richards Charlotte Alice Way	Herbert James Richards Charlotte Alice Way 💍 1887/1973	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	26 30	Wellington Palmerston North	2 months 4 years	Episcopalian Church, Palmerston North	87/1984		22 July 1887	Rev. H. E. Copinger
211	25 July 1887	Arthur Banks Elizabeth Hayward	Arthur Banks Elizabeth Hayward 💍 1887/423	Bachelor Spinster	Labour	22 19	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Registrars office, Wellington	87/2025	No relation in Colony	8 August 1887	Mr. I. Wyatt
212	25 July 1887	William Berland Annie Woolcott	William Bertaud Annie Woolcott 💍 1887/3258	Bachelor Spinster	Stalker	36 28	Wellington Wellington	4 years 1 year	St. Pauls Cathedral	87/2070		25 July 1887	Rev. John Still
213	26 July 1887	Robert McBeth Florence Eliza Shannon	Robert McBeth Florence Eliza Shannon 💍 1887/397	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	39 20	Wellington Clifton Terrace	4 months 4 years	House of Mr. G. V. Shannon, Clifton Terrace	87/1997	G. V. Shannon, Father	26 July 1887	Rev. L. M. Isitt
214	26 July 1887	Richard Lloyd Annie Baxter	Richard Lloyd Annie Baxter 💍 1887/416	Bachelor Spinster	Labour	26 23	Wellington Wellington	2 months 1 month	Registrars office, Wellington	87/2018		26 July 1887	Mr. I. Wyatt
215	28 July 1887	Antonio Arthur Cometti Edith Mary Cotter	Antonio Arthur Cometti Edith Mary Cotter 💍 1887/3256	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 20	Wellington Wellington	4 years 3 days	St. Pauls Cathedral	87/2068	Rosina Cotter, Mother	28 July 1887	Rev. John Still

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).