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 888

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
228	12 August 1887	Joseph Henry Hellwell Annie Esther Fitchett	Joseph Henry Hellinell Annie Esther Fitchett 💍 1887/1975	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 22	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	House of Mr. Fitchett, Wordsworth Street	87/1999		12 August 1887	Rev. L. M. Isitt
229	13 August 1887	Hugh Phillips Kate Sturdy	Hugh Phillips Kate Hardy 💍 1887/3257	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	29 21	Wellington Wellington	1 year 1 year	St. Pauls Cathedral	87/2069	Jane Cox, young worker	13 August 1887	Rev. John Still
230	13 August 1887	Thomas Smith Susan Jane Young	Thomas Smith Susan Jane Young 💍 1887/422	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	36 20	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Registrar's office	87/2024	Jane Cox, young worker	13 August 1887	Mr. W. J. Wyatt
231	13 August 1887	Job Watts Mary Whinham	Job Watts Mary A Whinham 💍 1887/3271	Widower Widow	Labour	48 35	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	House of Bridegroom, Thompson Street	87/2060		13 August 1887	Rev. W. Y. Potter
232	13 August 1887	John Walter Cudby Mary Martin	John Cudby Mary Martin 💍 1887/424	Bachelor Spinster	Labour	27 23	Upper Hutt Upper Hutt	4 years 4 years	Roman Catholic Church, Upper Hutt	87/2008		13 August 1887	Rev. J. Lane
233	15 August 1887	William Hamilton Elizabeth Mary Copper	William Hamilton Elizabeth Mary Copper 💍 1887/398	Bachelor Widow	Jockey	27 30	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street	87/1998		15 August 1887	Rev. L. M. Isitt
234	15 August 1887	James Ness Edith Whitehouse	James Ness Edith Whitehouse 💍 1887/1821	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	33 23	Wellington Wellington	3 days 4 years	House of Mr. Whitehouse, Taranaki Place	87/3537		15 August 1887	Rev. James Paterson
235	16 August 1887	William Joseph Archer Sarah Louisa Ella Stone	William Joseph Archer Sarah Louisa Ella Moore 💍 1887/1822	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	29 28	Wellington Wellington	3 days 4 years	St. Johns Church, Willis Street	87/3538		16 August 1887	Rev. James Paterson
236	16 August 1887	Francis Edward Kilchay Nellie Edwards	Francis Edward Kitching Nellie Edwards 💍 1887/445	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	26 22	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	St. Peters Church	87/2047		16 August 1887	Venble. Archdeacon Stock
237	16 August 1887	Pilade Ghozyani Fortunata Tereni		Bachelor Spinster	Hair Dresser	32 22	Wellington Wellington	5 days 5 days	Registrar's office, Wellington	87/2027		16 August 1887	Mr. W. J. Wyatt
238	16 August 1887	John Launcelot Holmes Margaret Ferguson	John Launcelot Holmes Margaret Ferguson 💍 1887/427	Bachelor Spinster	Steward	21 20	Wellington Wellington	4 months 9 months	Registrar's office, Wellington	87/2028	Mary Ferguson, mother	16 August 1887	Mr. W. J. Wyatt
239	16 August 1887	James Martin Louisa Cudby	James Martin Louisa Cudby 💍 1887/431	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Employee	29 26	Petone Upper Hutt	12 months 4 years	St. Josephs Church, Upper Hutt	87/2009		16 August 1887	Revd. John Lane

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).