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 895

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
167	19 July 1886	Andrew Moore Margaret Hurley	Andrew Moren Margaret Hurley 💍 1886/2103	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	28 24	Wellington Wellington	4 years	St. Mary of the Angels	86/2041		19 July 1886	Rev. P. Kerrigan Reg.
168	19 July 1886	Thomas Walker Mary Bradburn	Thomas Walker Mary Bradbury 💍 1886/2575 Thomas Walker Jane Hood 💍 1886/905	Bachelor Spinster	Ironfounder	31 31	Wellington Wellington	7 weeks 3 days	Wesleyan Parsonage, Taranaki Street	86/2033		19 July 1886	Rev. W. C. Oliver
169	21 July 1886	Alfred Charles Lemon Annie Richards	Alfred Charles Lennard Annie Richards 💍 1886/1321	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	28 24	Wellington Wellington	3 days 4 years	House of Mr. G. Richards, Webb Street	86/2570		21 July 1886	Rev. L. M. Isitt
170	21 July 1886	Ernest Charles Mills Eliza Vivian Cogar	Ernest Charles Mills Eliza Vivian Cogar 💍 1886/2090	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor	22 21	Wellington Wellington	3 days	Registrars Office, Wellington	86/2034		21 July 1886	W. T. Wyatt Reg.
171	23 July 1886	Patrick Kennedy Mary Elizabeth Cook	Patrick Kennedy Mary Elizabeth Cook 💍 1886/3353	Bachelor Spinster	Candlemoulder	28 22	Wellington Wellington	4 years	Home of Mr. Cook, Leeds Street	86/3456		23 July 1886	Rev. L. M. Isitt
172	24 July 1886	John Butler Cannothers Adelaide Elizabeth Dean	John Butler Carruthers Adelaide Elizabeth Diamond 💍 1886/2068	Widower Widow	Fellmonger	39 34	Wellington Wellington	6 months years	Registrars Office, Wellington	86/2036		24 July 1886	W. T. Wyatt Reg.
173	24 July 1886	Charles Gough Mary Hester Chardman	Charles Gough Mary Hester Maidment 💍 1886/2067	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 22	Lower Hutt Wellington	12 months years	Registrars Office, Wellington	86/2035		24 July 1886	W. T. Wyatt Reg.
174	26 July 1886	George Edward Johnson Henrietta Howe	George Edward Johnson Henrietta Howe 💍 1886/2576	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	23 20	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street	86/2534	Frances Howe, mother	26 July 1886	Rev. W. C. Oliver
175	26 July 1886	Frederick Brookes Mary Ann Gregory	Frederick Brookes Mary Ann Gregory 💍 1886/2056	Bachelor Widow	Compositor	41 47	Wades Town Wellington	3 days years	St. Pauls Cathedral	86/2023		26 July 1886	Rev. John Still Copp
176	28 July 1886	William Annes Ann Rose	William Armer Ann Rose 💍 1886/2069	Bachelor Widow	Blacksmith	43 40	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	Registrars Office, Wellington	86/2034		28 July 1886	W. T. Wyatt Reg.
177	29 July 1886	Arthur Wilcox Mary Eliza Dove	Arthur Wilcox Mary Eliza Dove 💍 1886/2070	Bachelor Widow	Baker	22 21	Wellington Wellington	years 2 months	Registrars Office, Wellington	86/2038		29 July 1886	W. T. Wyatt Reg.
178	30 July 1886	Thomas Heman Annie Smith	Thomas Eleman Annie Smith 💍 1886/2093	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	23 22	Wellington Wellington	years	St. Peters Church	86/2062		30 July 1886	Ven. Archdeacon Stock Copp

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).