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 1280

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
272	18 November 1886	Alexander Maule Emma Harriet Hayes	Alexander Maude Emma Harriet Hayes 💍 1886/2856	Bachelor Spinster	Labour	24 21	Wellington Nain Street	years years	House of Mrs Hayes, Nain Street	86/2839	18 November 1886	Rev. L. M. Isitt
273	25 November 1886	William George Goss Eliza Louisa Hulbert	William George Goss Eliza Louisa Hulbert 💍 1886/2851	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 21	Karori Karori	years years	St Mary's Church, Karori	86/2835	25 November 1886	Revd A. Dasent
274	26 November 1886	Alexander Sandel Elizabeth Antonsohn	Alexander Tandel Elisabeth Antonsohn 💍 1886/2883	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	29 25	Wellington Wellington	11 days 1 day	Registrars office	86/2866	26 November 1886	W. J. Wyatt
275	27 November 1886	James Pepin Elizabeth Marcom	James Piper Elizabeth Marcom 💍 1886/2884	Widower Spinster	Labour	38 26	Johnsonville Wellington	5 months 2 years	Registrars office	86/2867	27 November 1886	W. J. Wyatt
276	29 November 1886	George Jonathan Eagle Edith Tarr	George Jonathan Eagle Edith Farr 💍 1886/3335	Bachelor Spinster	Labour	30 22	Karori Karori	years years	Residence of Mr Tarr, Karori	86/3396	29 November 1886	Revd J. Paterson
277	29 November 1886	Joseph William Hagger Martha Elizabeth Saylor	Joseph William Hagger Martha Taylor 💍 1887/2611	Bachelor Spinster	Labour	32 30	Porirua Taranaki Street	2 weeks 5 months	Wesleyan Church	84/295	29 November 1886	Revd W. C. Oliver
278	29 November 1886	William Chance Mary Eliza Jenkins	William Chance Mary Eliza Jenkins 💍 1886/2868	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker	22 21	Upland Farm Wellington	2 months years	House of Revd W. S. Potter, Broadway Terrace	86/2852	29 November 1886	Revd W. S. Potter
279	1 December 1886	Timothy O'Rourke Bridget Courtney	Timothy O'Rourke Bridget Courtney 💍 1886/2937	Bachelor Spinster	Police Constable	26 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Mary's Cathedral	86/2897	1 December 1886	Revd J. McNamara
280	1 December 1886	Reginald Staveley Emily Maud Pitts	Reginald Staveley Emily Maud Pitts 💍 1886/2903	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 21	Wellington Wellington	1 week 1 year	Registrars office	86/2869	1 December 1886	W. J. Wyatt
281	1 December 1886	William Fairhurst Hargreaves Elizabeth Vickers		Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 22	Wellington Wellington	4 months years	Registrars office	86/2869	1 December 1886	W. J. Wyatt
282	3 December 1886	John Sinclair (claiming to be called St Clair) Frances Marie Hickson	John Sinclair Frances Marie Hickson 💍 1886/2904	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	27 25	Wellington Wellington	6 months months	St Pauls Cathedral	86/2887	3 December 1886	Revd W. E. Lush
283	3 December 1886	Owen Newport Annie Green		Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	23 21	Wellington Wellington	2 years 1 year	St Peters Church		3 December 1886	Venble Archdeacon Stock

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).