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 1356

District of Quarter ending 31 December 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
259	22 August 1887	Fraud Piece Mary Dunn				20 19			Registrar Office Christchurch		There is no person in Colony having authority to consent - Margaret Douglas Mother	3 October 1887	Registrar of Marriages J. J. Paulerson
296	3 October 1887	William Elliot Ada Douglas	William Elliot Ada Douglas 💍 1887/1399	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	30 19	Paparui Paparui	27 years 13 years	Registrar Office Christchurch	87/3060	Mother	3 October 1887	Registrar of Marriages J. J. Paulerson
297	3 October 1887	Robert McClelland Betsy Shepherd	Robert McClelland Betsy Shepherd 💍 1887/1396	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	32 23	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 2 years	Registrar Office Christchurch	87/3058		3 October 1887	Registrar of Marriages J. J. Paulerson
298	3 October 1887	George Herbert Bryant Mary Douglass	George Herbert Bryant Mary Douglas 💍 1887/1371	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Machinist	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	24 years 7 years	St Johns Church	87/3121		3 October 1887	Rev. C. J. Herbert Church of England
299	4 October 1887	William Bryant Catherine George	William Bryant Catherine George 💍 1887/1397	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Housekeeper	39 44	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	Registrar Office Christchurch	87/3059		4 October 1887	Registrar of Marriages J. J. Paulerson
300	4 October 1887	Albert Herbert Broods Elizabeth Kaye Robinson	Albert Herbert Brooks Elizabeth Kaye Robinson 💍 1887/1384	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	22 19	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 9 years	Church of Good Shepherd	87/3110	Elizabeth Brown Mother	4 October 1887	Rev. J. C. Gilbert Church of England
301	4 October 1887	Francis Latter Emily Frances Beacon	Francis Latter Emily Frances Deacon 💍 1887/1441	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 26	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 26 years	St Barnabas Church	87/3094		4 October 1887	Rev. J. Chaffers-Well Church of England
302	4 October 1887	Walter Haden Annie Louisa Reid	Walter Haden Annie Louisa Reid 💍 1887/1433	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	32 26	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 1 year	St Michael Church	87/3088		4 October 1887	Rev. H. T. Purchas Church of England
303	5 October 1887	John Honeywell Mary Ann Trion	John Honeywell Mary Ann Dixon 💍 1887/1381	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 25	Sydenham Sydenham	10 years 4 years	House of J. Honeywell	87/3107		5 October 1887	Rev. W. Keall Wesleyan
304	6 October 1887	Thomas Dummice Mary Russell Greig	Thomas Dunmill Mary Russell Greig 💍 1887/1358	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 24	Christchurch House of William Greig Montreal Street City	24 years 14 years	House of William Greig	87/3033		6 October 1887	Rev. J. Mc Intosh Presbyterian

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).