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 1364

District of Christchurch 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
385	21 December 1887	Arthur Primrose Elizabeth Ann Rule	Ernest Arthur Kennard Elizabeth Ann Rule 💍 1887/1376	Bachelor Spinster	Driver	23 17	Secumore Secumore	4 years 17 years	House of Fredk Bay	87/3125	Mary Ann Rule, Mother	21 December 1887	Rev. J. Rule, Presbyt
386	22 December 1887	Alfred James Thewaites Maria Jane Carter	Alfred James Thwaites Eliza Jane Carter 💍 1887/1338	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 19 years	House of Rev. P. W. Jones, Cambridge Terrace Chch	87/3037		22 December 1887	Rev. P. W. Jones, Methodist
387	23 December 1887	Michael Reynolds Matilda Petersen	Michael Reynolds Matilda Petersen 💍 1887/1347	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	27 17	Halswell Burnham	7 years 6 years	St. Mary's Church	87/3046	Thomas Palethorpe, legal Guardian	23 December 1887	Rev. H. J. C. Gilbert, Church of England
388	23 December 1887	James Price Florence Mary Browne Sibbald	James Price Kennedy Mary Brown Sibbald 💍 1887/1380	Bachelor Widow	Clerk	32 37	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 3 years	St. Lukes Church	87/3106		23 December 1887	Rev. Arch. Lingard, Church of England
389	24 December 1887	Jethro Lock Mary Elizabeth Cooke	Jeffero Lock Mary Elizabeth Cooke 💍 1887/1375	Bachelor Spinster	Stone Cutter	22 20	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 8 days	Free Methodist Chapel, Richmond	87/3124	John Stephenson Cooke, Father	24 December 1887	Rev. F. V. B. Beecher, Methodist
390	27 December 1887	George Robinson Annie Neale	George Robinson Annie Neill 💍 1887/1394	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 24 years	Presbyterian Church	87/3056		27 December 1887	Rev. P. R. Munro, Presbyterian
391	27 December 1887	Robert Jack Emma Berryman	Robert Jack Emma Berryman 💍 1887/1339	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Dressmaker	23 25	Christchurch Christchurch	13 years 9 years	House of James Berryman, Gorfsee Rd. Linwood	87/3038		27 December 1887	Rev. P. W. Jones, Methodist
392	28 December 1887	Gordon Paulker Wood Margaret Mansell	Gordon Parker Wood Margaret Mansell 💍 1887/1386	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	28 24	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 16 years	Church of Good Shepherd, Linwood	87/3112		28 December 1887	Rev. H. J. C. Gilbert, Church of England
393	28 December 1887	William McIntosh Murray Gertrude Constance Duncan Curry	William McIntosh Murray Gertrude Constance Emma Curry 💍 1887/1440	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	31 25	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 3 years	St. Michaels Church	87/3093		28 December 1887	Rev. H. S. Purcas, Church of England
394	28 December 1887	Walter Moreton Hindmarsh Elizabeth Muff	Walter Moreton Hindmarsh Elizabeth Muff 💍 1887/1994	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Agent	25 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 1 month	St. Johns Church	87/3129		28 December 1887	Rev. F. M. Watson, Church of England

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).