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 1282

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 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
296	20 December 1886	Thomas McNicholl Sarah Ann Powell	Thomas McNicholl Sarah Ann Powell 💍 1886/2888	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	27 23	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Revd J. K. Elliott, Molesworth Square	86/2848		20 December 1886	Revd J. K. Elliott
297	21 December 1886	Albert James Partridge Amy Ryley	Albert James Partridge Amy Ryley 💍 1887/2568	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	21 17	Whitemans Valley Whitemans Valley	years years	Whitemans Valley Church	87/276	No relation in Colony	4 January 1887	Revd G. J. Murray
298	21 December 1886	John Reynolds Selina Norton	John Reynell Selina Norton 💍 1886/2912	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	30 25	Wellington Wellington	3 days 4 weeks	Registrars office Wellington	86/2842		21 December 1886	W. D. Wyatt, Regr
299	22 December 1886	Henry Joseph Naughton Sadie Prior Gardner	Henry Joseph Naughton Sadie Prior Gardner 💍 1886/2913	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	28 34	Wellington Wellington	14 months 4 months	Registrars office Wellington	86/2843		22 December 1886	W. D. Wyatt, Regr
300	22 December 1886	James Reid Margaret McNair	James Reid Margaret McNair 💍 1886/2889	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 25	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mrs Reid, Roxburgh Street	86/2849		22 December 1886	Revd J. K. Elliott
301	22 December 1886	Frederick William Rowe Elizabeth Louisa Barber (otherwise Smith)	Frederick William Rowe Elizabeth Louisa Barber Smith 💍 1887/2567	Bachelor Spinster	Produce Merchant	25 19	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr Smith, Adelaide Road	87/245	Jemima Elizabeth Sutherland, mother	22 December 1886	Revd W. Kirk
302	24 December 1886	John Kinnear Jemima Sinclair	John Kinnear Jemima Sinclair 💍 1887/2612	Widower Spinster	Messenger	46 38	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr Kemp, Willis Street	87/296		24 December 1886	Revd W. C. Oliver
303	29 December 1886	John Hone Sweed Jessie Gertrude Martin	John Moore Tweed Jessie Gertrude Martin 💍 1886/3337	Bachelor Spinster	medical Practitioner	28 20	Ashburton Wellington	years years	St Johns Church Ashburton	86/13398	John Martin, father	29 December 1886	Revd James Paterson
304	29 December 1886	John Kerby Winifred Hollings	John Kirby Winifred Hodgins 💍 1887/2607	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	44 35	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Marys Cathedral	87/291		29 December 1886	Revd J. McNamara
305	29 December 1886	Michael Ryan Elizabeth Belgan	Michael Ryan Elizabeth Oetgen 💍 1886/2870	Widower Spinster	Farmer	29 27	Wellington Wellington	4 days 4 days	House of Mrs Crosbie, Cuba Street	86/2854		29 December 1886	Revd W. S. Potter
306	29 December 1886	George Griffiths Margaret Haylock	George Griffiths Margaret Hazlock 💍 1886/2895	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmiller	30 21	Wellington Wellington	5 days 12 days	St Marks Church	86/2849		29 December 1886	Revd R. Coffey
307	29 December 1886	George Farrow Wood Jessie Smart Wright	George Farrow Wood Jessie Stuart Wright 💍 1887/2594	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 18	Wairarapa Wellington	years 14 days	Registrars office	87/302	No relation in Colony	12 January 1887	W. D. Wyatt, Regr

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).