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 890

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
252	29 August 1887	Thomas Thomas Isabel Wood	Thomas Thomson Isabel Wood 💍 1887/438	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 21	Wainuiomata Wellington	years 6 months	Registrars office Wellington	87/2032		29 August 1887	W. I. Wyatt
253	30 August 1887	Thomas Randolph Arthur Clara Mary Healy		Bachelor Widow	Farmer	24 20	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	87/2033		30 August 1887	W. I. Wyatt
254	1 September 1887	William James Laurant Mahlee Nicotina Wilder	William James Laurent Matilda Nicolina Wilder 💍 1887/450	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 23	Taita Lower Hutt	years years	Presbyterian Church	87/2051		1 September 1887	Rev. W. Rodger
255	5 September 1887	James McGuire Amy Ethel McGee	James McGuire Amy Ethel McGee 💍 1887/405	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	25 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Marys Cathedral	87/2006		5 September 1887	Rev. R. Coffey
256	5 September 1887	William Eason Barratt Ellen Caroline Redmond	William Edwin Bannister Ellen Caroline Redward 💍 1887/448	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Peters Church	87/2050		5 September 1887	W. I. Wyatt
257	5 September 1887	Henry Thompson Whitelaw Louisa West Wakeham	Henry Thompson Whitelaw Louisa West Wakeham 💍 1887/457	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	24 22	Wellington Wellington	7 months 6 days	Registrars office Wellington	87/2035		5 September 1887	W. I. Wyatt
258	5 September 1887	Arthur William Mills Rosa Annie Fayne	Arthur William Mills Rosa Annie Fayne 💍 1887/458	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	21 22	Wellington Wellington	3 years years	Registrars office Wellington	87/2036		5 September 1887	W. I. Wyatt
259	5 September 1887	James Walter Griffiths Mary Ann Seamer	James Walter Griffiths Mary Ann Seamer 💍 1887/433	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	19 17	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Marks Church	87/2011	James Walter Ward, Guardian, Nepia Seamer, father	5 September 1887	Rev. R. Coffey
260	2 September 1887	Frank Henry Ellison Emily Maddock	Frank Henry Ellison Emily Maddock 💍 1887/455	Bachelor Spinster	Confectioner	22 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	Methodist Free Church, Courtenay Place	87/2056		8 September 1887	Revd. C. Penney
261	9 September 1887	Peter Buchanan Duff Elizabeth Wheeler	Peter Buchanan Duff Elizabeth Wheeler 💍 1887/399	Bachelor Spinster	Bookbinder	26 23	Wellington Wellington	years years	Store of W. Hocken, Adelaide Road	87/2000		9 September 1887	Rev. L. M. Isitt
262	9 September 1887	Thomas Elliott Greig Emma Ann Norris	Thomas Elliott Creeks Emma Ann Norris 💍 1887/434	Bachelor Spinster	P. A. Force	28 20	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Marks Church	87/2012	William Henry Norris, Father	9 September 1887	Rev. R. Coffey
263	9 September 1887	Frank Pettengell Alice Hall	Frank Pettengell Alice Hall 💍 1887/460	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 24	Wellington Wellington	years 4 days	Registrars office Wellington	87/2038		9 September 1887	W. I. Wyatt

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).