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 805

District of Wangarei Quarter ending 30 September 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
242	20 July 1888	Frank Jameson Alice Annie Porter	Frank Jameson Alice Annie Porter 💍 1888/1942	Bachelor Spinster	School Teacher	24 24	Wangarei Wangarei	4 days 8 years	Residence of Rev.	88/1930		2 July 1888	Rev. J. Thomas Wesleyan.
243	1 August 1888	Nicholas Nelson Mary Campbell	Nicholas Wilson Mary Campbell 💍 1888/1943	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 18	Otonga East Otonga East	10 years 8 years	Office of Registrar	88/1931	Name Black, mother	1 August 1888	Registrar - BOD Halloran
244	7 August 1888	Arthur Christie Jeanie Brown	Arthur Christie Jane Brown 💍 1888/1921	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 20	Otonga East Kamo	5 years 3 years	Private residence	88/1933	John Brown, father	7 August 1888	Rev. B. Hutson Presbyterian
245	2 August 1888	James North Alice Emily Morgan	James North Alice Emily Morgan 💍 1888/1926	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	22 17	Wangarei Otahuhu Wangarei	12 years 7 years	Residence of Mr. North	88/1938	Mr. Morgan, father	2 August 1888	Rev. L. Labett Episcopalian
246	25 August 1888	Arthur Edward North Clara Annie Morgan	Arthur Edward North Clara Annie Morgan 💍 1888/1927	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	20 19	Wangarei Wangarei	20 years 18 years	Residence of Mr. North	88/1939	Jas. North, father; for Morgan, father	25 August 1888	Rev. L. Labett Episcopalian
247	3 September 1888	James Joseph Spratt Alice Howells	James Joseph Spratt Alice Woulds 💍 1888/1944	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 18	Hukerenui Hukerenui	8 years 4 years	Office of Registrar	88/1932	Mr. Howells, father	3 September 1888	Registrar
248	4 September 1888	Henry Kehoe Alice Johns	Henry Kehoe Alice Johns 💍 1888/1922	Bachelor Spinster	Farm labourer	20 16	Otahuhu Otahuhu	11 years 16 years	Residence of Reynolds	88/1934	Mr. Kehoe, father; No one in colony having authority to give consent	4 September 1888	Episcopalian
249	13 September 1888	William Deeming Clara Amelia Cooper	William Deeming Clara Amelia Cooper 💍 1888/1923	Bachelor Spinster		24 19	Wangarei Wangarei	6 days 3 years	Residence of Rev.	88/1935	Mr. Cooper, father	13 September 1888	Rev. J. H. Hawk Episcopalian
250	17 September 1888	John Nelson Annie Finlayson	John Nelson Annie Finlayson 💍 1888/1924	Bachelor Spinster		31 19	Otonga Otonga	3 years 19 years	Residence of Rev.	88/1936	Mr. Finlayson, father	17 September 1888	Rev. J. H. Hawk Episcopalian

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).