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 897

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
191	10 August 1886	Guiseppe Baretto Martha Greer	Guiseppe Baietto Martha Greer 💍 1886/2075	Bachelor Spinster	Labor	37 22	Wellington Karori	years 14 days	Registrars office Wellington	86/2043		10 August 1886	W. I. Wyatt Reg.
192	11 August 1886	Frederick Dowsett Sarah Ellen Ashdown	Frederick Dowsett Sarah Ellen Ashdown 💍 1886/2076	Bachelor Spinster	Labor	22 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	86/2044		11 August 1886	W. I. Wyatt Reg.
193	11 August 1886	John Haeford Mary Campbell	John Halford Mary Campbell 💍 1886/2078	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter	32 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	86/2045		11 August 1886	W. I. Wyatt Reg.
194	14 August 1886	Robert Dewar Catherine Maud McInnes	Robert Dewar Catherine Maud McIntosh 💍 1886/2581	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	33 23	Wellington Woolcombe Street	years years	House of Revd J. Paterson	86/2563		14 August 1886	Revd J. Paterson Pres.
195	16 August 1886	John Atkinson Blanche Lane Manning	John Atkinson Blanche Lane Manning 💍 1886/2582	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	27 24	Wellington Woolcombe Street	years 10 months	The Manse	86/2564		16 August 1886	Revd J. Paterson Pres.
196	18 August 1886	Arthur Samuel Death Sarah Ann Jones	Arthur Samuel Death Sarah Anne Jones 💍 1886/2082	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 20	Taita Pahautanui	years years	Registrars office Wellington	86/2049	William Jones father	18 August 1886	W. I. Wyatt Reg.
197	23 August 1886	John Hooper Alice McDonald	John Hooper Alice McDonald 💍 1886/2081	Bachelor Spinster	Labour	22 21	Upper Hutt Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	86/2048		23 August 1886	W. I. Wyatt Reg.
198	24 August 1886	William Herbert Hagger Hannah Bowneker	William Herbert Hagger Hannah Bowmaker 💍 1886/2080	Bachelor Spinster	Coal Merchant	22 25	Wellington Wellington	7 months 3 days	Registrars office Wellington	86/2047		24 August 1886	W. I. Wyatt Reg.
199	25 August 1886	Horace Danvers Baker Ellen Robinson	Horace Danvers Baker Ellen Robinson 💍 1886/2101	Bachelor Spinster	Estate Agent	24 22	Wellington Vivian Street	years years	House of Mr. Robinson Vivian Street	86/2070		25 August 1886	Revd J. K. Elliott Pres.
200	25 August 1886	Henry Have Martha Christina Knigge	Henry Hare Martha Christina Knigge 💍 1886/2079	Bachelor Spinster	Bookbinder	22 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	86/2046		25 August 1886	W. I. Wyatt Reg.
201	25 August 1886	Cornelius Savage Ellen Ryall	Cornelius Savage Ellen Byall 💍 1886/2104	Bachelor Spinster	School Teacher	26 28	Wellington The Angels	6 months years	St. Mary	86/2012		25 August 1886	Revd P. Kerrigan Reg.
202	27 August 1886	Herbert England Mary Conn	Herbert England Mary Conn 💍 1886/2113	Bachelor Spinster	Labour	19 19	Lower Hutt Lower Hutt	years 7 months	House of Mr. Docherty Petone	86/2059	Charles England father No relation in Colony	10 September 1886	Revd D. D. Rodger Pres.

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).