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 899

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
215	11 September 1886	Robert Smith Ross Catherine Elizabeth Gunn	Robert Smith Ross Catherine Elizabeth Gunn 💍 1886/2585	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	32 23	Wellington Wellington	2 years 1 month	House of Mr. Sutherland, Dixon Street	86/12564	11 September 1886	Revd. J. Paterson, Pres.
216	13 September 1886	Edward Irwin Mary Hellen	Edward Irwin Mary Miller 💍 1886/2058	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	42 34	Hokitika Valley Wellington	3 days years	St. Pauls Cathedral	86/2025	12 September 1886	Revd. John Still, C of E
217	13 September 1886	William Liddy Margaret Jane Hassall	William Liddy Margaret Jane Hassard 💍 1886/2098	Bachelor Spinster	Boilermaker	29 22	Wellington Wellington	9 months years	St Peters Church	86/2067	13 September 1886	Venble. Archdeacon Stock, C of E
218	13 September 1886	Frederick Taylor Goodman Marian Harper		Bachelor Spinster	Agent	31 28	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Bride, Vivian Street	86/2568	13 September 1886	Mr. Samuel Carsall, Baptist
219	16 September 1886	Samuel Bundy Margaret Bullock	Samuel Cundy Margaret Tulloch 💍 1886/2586 Samuel Beatty Margaret Watson 💍 1887/2059	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 26	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	St. Johns Church	86/2568	16 September 1886	Revd. J. Paterson, Pres.
220	16 September 1886	Jens Marius Sorensen Jemima Chapman	Jens Marinus Sorenson Jemima Chapman 💍 1886/2083	Widower Spinster	Expressman	33 23	Wellington Wellington	years 11 months	Registrars Office, Wellington	86/2050	16 September 1886	Mr. D. Wyatt, Regr.
221	17 September 1886	William Hales Marguerite Maria Agnes Godfrey	William Halse Margaret Mary Agnes Godfrey 💍 1886/2525	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	30 27	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Marys Cathedral	86/2491	17 September 1886	Revd. John McNamara, R.C.
222	20 September 1886	William Thompson Elizabeth Hooper	William Thompson Elizabeth Hooper 💍 1886/2091	Bachelor Spinster	Bushfeller	30 24	Otaki Wellington	years years	Registrars Office, Wellington	86/2057	20 September 1886	Mr. D. Wyatt, Regr.
223	22 September 1886	Henry Alexander Julia Fancy	Henry Alexander Julia Fairey 💍 1886/2102	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 21	Mungaroa Valley Wellington	years years	Registrars Office, Wellington	86/2052	22 September 1886	Mr. D. Wyatt, Regr.
224	22 September 1886	James Stockbridge Mary O'Sullivan	James Hockbridge Mary O'Sullivan 💍 1886/2108 James Butler Mary O'Sullivan 💍 1886/717	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	48 38	Ohariu Wellington	years years	Registrars Office, Wellington	86/2053	22 September 1886	Mr. D. Wyatt, Regr.
225	23 September 1886	Austin Alison Elder Josephine Nellie O'Meara	Austin Alison Elder Josephine Neville O'Meara 💍 1886/2097	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	21 21	Wellington Wellington	12 days 13 months	St. Peters Church	86/2066	23 September 1886	Venble. Archdeacon Stock, C of E
226	23 September 1886	Ormond Edmund Smith Margaret Collie	Ormond Edmund Smith Margaret Collie 💍 1886/2874	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	33 25	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	Registrars Office, Wellington	86/2858	23 September 1886	Mr. 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).