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 917

District of Wellington 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
181	2 July 1888	Charles Gamble Jane McNamara	Charles Gamble Jane McNamara 💍 1888/140	Widower Widow	Tailor	49 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrar's office, Wellington	88/2210		2 July 1888	W. T. Wyatt
182	3 July 1888	James Potter Margaret Elizabeth O'Connor	James Potter Margaret Elizabeth O'Connor 💍 1888/141	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphic	25 22	Wellington Wellington	18 months 13 months	Registrar's office, Wellington	88/2212		3 July 1888	W. T. Wyatt
183	4 July 1888	Vincent Joseph Brogan Annie Elizabeth Shewbridge	Vincent Joseph Brogan Annie Elizabeth Shewbridge 💍 1888/3644	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 23	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Rev. J. Paterson, Taranaki Street	88/2178		4 July 1888	Rev. J. Paterson
184	4 July 1888	James Robert Messenger Amelia Roe	James Robert Nissenger Amelia Rose 💍 1888/2277	Bachelor Spinster	Inspector of Defence	32 23	Wellington Wellington	years years	Primitive Methodist Church, Sydney Street	88/2178		4 July 1888	Rev. John Nixon
185	4 July 1888	Albert Edward Mundell Mary Ann Young	Albert Edward Mundle Mary Ann Young 💍 1888/2282	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	21 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Rev. W. M. Lee, Drummond Street	88/2183		4 July 1888	Rev. Wm. Lee
186	4 July 1888	William Crawford Mary Ann Gooding	William Crawford Mary Ann Gooding 💍 1888/142	Bachelor Spinster	Driver	27 23	Wellington Wellington	5 months 14 days	Registrar's office, Wellington	88/2213		4 July 1888	W. T. Wyatt
187	9 July 1888	Gustaf Miller Elizabeth Barnicott	Gustaf Miller Elizabeth Barnecott 💍 1888/143	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 19	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrar's office, Wellington	88/2214	Henry Barnicott, Father	9 July 1888	W. T. Wyatt
188	10 July 1888	Francis Beaumont Cousins Mary Cecilia Murphy	Francis Beumont Cousins Mary Cesilia Murphy 💍 1888/2167	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Labourer	26 25	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Mary of the Angels	88/2163		10 July 1888	Rev. P. Kerrigan
189	12 July 1888	William Nelson Mary McNabb	William Nelson Mary McNabb 💍 1888/157	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 23	Wellington Wellington	5 months years	House of Rev. J. K. Elliott, Levy Street	88/2204		12 July 1888	Rev. J. K. Elliott
190	18 July 1888	William Walker Margaret Elkin	William Walker Margaret Isabella Elkin 💍 1888/2175	Bachelor Spinster	Milkman	27 31	Petone Korokoro	2 months 18 months	St. Paul's Cathedral	88/2170		18 July 1888	Rev. John Still
191	19 July 1888	John McCleary Margaret McCarthy	James McCleary Margaret McCarthy 💍 1888/2179	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker	23 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Mary's Cathedral	88/2174		19 July 1888	Rev. J. McNamara
192	21 July 1888	Jeremiah Haggerty Emma Kitching	Jeremiah Haggerty Emma Kitchings 💍 1888/2168	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	26 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Mary of the Angels	88/2164		21 July 1888	Rev. P. Kerrigan

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).