Intentions to Marry, 1886

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840398, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 14 2025

Page 135

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1886

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
49	4 March 1886	William Lewis Kernahan Georgina Emma Davis	William Lewis Kernahan Georgina Emma Davis 💍 1886/486	Bachelor Spinster	Commission Agent	26 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Peters Church	86/1359	4 March 1886	Revd Archdeacon Stock
50	5 March 1886	John Paterson Nellie Legge	John Paterson Nellie Legge 💍 1886/1036	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 22	Wellington Wellington	15 months 3 days	House of Mr Speirs, Wordsworth Street	86/902	5 March 1886	Revd C. J. Ogg
51	6 March 1886	William Bryant Cater Peace Ellen Mary Follett	William Bryant Vater Pearce Ellen Mary Follett 💍 1886/450	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 29	Wellington Wellington	6 days 4 weeks	House of Revd L. H. York, Willis Street	86/320	6 March 1886	Revd L. H. York
52	8 March 1886	Thomas Barton Ellen Shanahan	Thomas Barton Ellen Shamahan 💍 1886/458	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Mary's Cathedral	86/305	8 March 1886	Revd John McNamara
53	8 March 1886	William Harrington Stack Ada Mackett	William Hannington Atack Ada MacKett 💍 1886/453	Bachelor Spinster	Journalist	29 29	Wellington Wellington	2 months 1 week	House of Mrs Gascoigne, Molesworth Street	86/323	8 March 1886	Revd P. N. Hunter
54	9 March 1886	Henry Salmons Jane Rolleston	Henry Salmons Jane Rolston 💍 1886/451	Widower Widow	Farmer	50 38	Ohariu Johnsonville	years years	House of Revd W. C. Oliver, Taranaki Street	86/321	9 March 1886	Revd W. C. Oliver
55	10 March 1886	Alexander Cassie Jane Farquharson	Alexander Cassie Jane Farquharson 💍 1886/1037	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 23	Wellington Wellington	10 months 3 days	St Andrew's Manse, Wellington Terrace	86/903	10 March 1886	Revd C. J. Ogg
56	10 March 1886	George Spicer Jane Amelia Harris	George Spicer Jane Amelia Harris 💍 1886/476	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 22	Pahautanui Wellington	12 months years	Registrars Office, Wellington	86/1349	10 March 1886	W. T. Wyatt
57	13 March 1886	Walter Hayes Agnes Annie Hartelow	Walter Hayes Agnes Annie Hartelow 💍 1886/1283	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 24	Wellington Wellington	years 1 year	House of Mrs Hayes, Nairn Street	86/1114	13 March 1886	Revd J. Paterson
58	15 March 1886	William Henry Dempsey Christiana Amelia Hocking	William Henry Dempsey Christiana Amelia Hosking 💍 1886/1038	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	27 21	Wellington Wellington	3 days 10 days	House of Mr Whitwell, Taranaki Road	86/904	15 March 1886	Revd C. J. Ogg
59	16 March 1886	Samuel Scott Lydia Robertson	Samuel Scott Lydia Robertson 💍 1886/477	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	25 23	Wellington Wellington	8 months 12 months	Registrars Office, Wellington	86/1348	16 March 1886	W. T. Wyatt
60	17 March 1886	Norman Henderson Sarah Molloy	Norman Henderson Sarah Molloy 💍 1886/516	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	34 22	Wellington Lower Hutt	years 1 year	House of Mr Molloy, Lower Hutt	86/364	17 March 1886	Revd David D. Rodger

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).