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 902

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
227	25 September 1886	John Robert O'Connor Bridget O'Farrell	John Robert O'Connor Bridget O'Farrell 💍 1886/2105	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker	37 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Mary of the Angels	86/2043		25 September 1886	Rev. P. Kerrigan
228	27 September 1886	William Joseph Grant Johanna Crampton	William Joseph Grant Johanna Crampton 💍 1886/2106	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 25	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Mary of the Angels	86/2044		27 September 1886	Rev. P. Kerrigan
229	27 September 1886	Thomas Edward Johnson Alice Steppings	Thomas Edward Johnson Alice Steppings 💍 1886/2109	Bachelor Spinster	Sailmaker	21 22	Wellington Wellington	4 days years	Registrars Office Wellington	86/2054		27 September 1886	W. T. Wyatt
230	27 September 1886	Charles Frederick Langdon Frances Clara Dillon	Charles Frederick Langdon Frances Clara Dillon 💍 1886/2110	Widower Spinster	Baker	36 39	Lower Hutt Wellington	6 months 14 days	Registrars Office Wellington	86/2055		27 September 1886	W. T. Wyatt
231	28 September 1886	Paul Adolph Steen Harriet Louisa Martin	Paul Adolph Steen Harriett Louisa Martin 💍 1886/3402	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	23 22	Wellington Kaitoke	years years	House of Mr. Walker, Marjoribanks Street	86/3464		28 September 1886	Mr. J. F. Lloyd, Ch of Eng
232	29 September 1886	John James Earl Sarah Garbutt	John James Earl Sarah Garbutt 💍 1886/2875	Bachelor Spinster	Bookkeeper	26 24	Wellington Wellington	3 months 3 months	Registrars Office Wellington	86/2859		29 September 1886	W. T. Wyatt
233	29 September 1886	Peter Shannon Kate Padden	Peter Shannon Kate Padden 💍 1886/2898	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	35 30	Wellington Wellington	years 6 days	St. Mary of the Angels	86/2882		29 September 1886	Rev. P. Kerrigan
234	30 September 1886	Robert Hall Odling Mary Eyres	Robert Hall Odling Mary Eyre 💍 1886/2890	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	23 19	Wellington Wellington	years years	Primitive Methodist Church, Webb Street	86/2850	William Eyres, Henry Father	30 September 1886	Rev. W. S. Potter
235	30 September 1886	Victor Lambing Georgina Harris	Victor Lamberg Georgina Harris 💍 1886/2871	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	24 20	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Paul, Garrett Street	86/2855		30 September 1886	Rev. S. Costall

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).