Intentions to Marry, 1888

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840400, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Alexandra at Archives NZ Wellington, May 14 2025

Page 527

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1888

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
89	3 April 1888	Henry Ferris Alice Williams	Henry Ferris Alice Williams 💍 1888/1323	Widower Spinster	Engineer	40 26	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of The Revd. C. Y. Ogg	88/1178		3 April 1888	Rev. C. Y. Ogg
90	3 April 1888	Patrick Gilhooly Eliza Syme	Patrick Gilhooly Eliza Tyne 💍 1888/1259	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 26	Wellington Wellington	2 weeks years	St. Mary Cathedral	88/1192		3 April 1888	Rev. J. Mc Namara
91	3 April 1888	Henry Lawson Margaret Short	Henry Lawson Margaret Short 💍 1888/1270	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker	23 14	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	88/1220	Margaret Wilson mother	3 April 1888	W. T. Wyatt
92	5 April 1888	Henry William Millais Jessie Ann Louise Ross	Henry William Millais Jessie Ann Louise Ross 💍 1888/1231	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	36 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mrs Ross Murphy Street	88/1162		6 April 1888	Rev. W. Grant
93	5 April 1888	Richard Stoles Annie Hill Robertson	Richard Holes Annie Hill Robertson 💍 1888/1465	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	32 24	Wellington Wellington	3 days 8 weeks	Registrars office Wellington	88/1221		5 April 1888	W. T. Wyatt
94	5 April 1888	John Mordin Elizabeth Herrington	John Dodds Elizabeth Henry 💍 1888/872 John Irwin Elizabeth Coote 💍 1888/3437	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	20 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	88/1222	No relation in Colony	14 April 1888	W. T. Wyatt
95	6 April 1888	Charles Elliott Elizabeth Mabey	Charles Elliott Elizabeth Mabey 💍 1888/1476	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 16	Lower Hutt Lower Hutt	years years	Registrars office Wellington	88/1222	Esther Russell Mother	6 April 1888	W. T. Wyatt
96	6 April 1888	Charles Jacob Gisson Annie Carter	Charles Jacob Sisson Annie Carter 💍 1888/1335	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Marks Church	88/1168		6 April 1888	Rev. R. Coffey
97	6 April 1888	John Murphy Anastasia Gershon	John Murphy Annastatia Geishon 💍 1888/1332	Bachelor Widow	Mariner	31 32	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Mary of the Angels	88/1186		6 April 1888	Rev. P. Kerrigan
98	7 April 1888	James Swanson Elisha Russell	James Swanson Edith Russell 💍 1888/1245	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 17	Whitemans Valley Whitemans Valley	years years	Wesleyan Church Whitemans Valley	88/1201	Edward Russell Father	7 April 1888	Revd. E. J. Murray
99	9 April 1888	Patrick Murphy Lucy Reeves Harris	Patrick Murphy Lucy Reeves Harris 💍 1888/3601	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker	23 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Mary of the Angels	88/1187		9 April 1888	Rev. P. Kerrigan
100	9 April 1888	Ernest Thomas Laing Rowlands Emma Minnie Maud Boulton	Ernest Thomas Laing Rowlands Emma Minnie Maude Boulton 💍 1888/1482	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	20 19	Pahautanui Pahautanui	years years	Registrars office Wellington	88/1223	Mary Rowlands mother, Edward Boulton Father	9 April 1888	W. T. Wyatt

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).