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 923

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
253	17 September 1888	James Sumpson Eliza Mary Howell	James Simpson Eliza Mary Howell 💍 1888/2308	Widower Spinster	Commission agent	37 26	Wellington Wellington	1 week 1 week	Registrars office Wellington	88/2231		17 September 1888	W. T. Wyatt
254	18 September 1888	Henry Thomas Andrews Mary Eden	Henry Thomas Andrews Mary Eden 💍 1888/2285	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 26	Wellington Wellington	5 days 3 days	Registrars office Wellington	88/2232		18 September 1888	W. T. Wyatt
255	21 September 1888	Alexander Gerald Beere Johanna Clare Taylor	Alexander Gerald Beere Johanna Clare Taylor 💍 1888/2178	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 23	Wellington Wellington	4 days 4 days	St. Pauls Cathedral	88/2173		21 September 1888	Rev. John Still
256	24 September 1888	James Barry Martin Alice Wimsett	James Barry Martin Alice Wirnsett 💍 1888/3466	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 23	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Robert Scott Willis Street	88/3564		24 September 1888	Rev. C. S. Ogg
257	25 September 1888	Mark Henry Ayre Ellen Donnelly	Mark Henry Ayre Ellen Connelly 💍 1888/2172	Widower Spinster	Station Master	30 23	Wellington Wellington	3 days 6 weeks	St. Mary of the Angels	88/2160		25 September 1888	Rev. P. Kerrigan
258	25 September 1888	Robert McPherson Annie Bromley		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 19	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington		In relation to Minor in Colony	13 October 1888	W. T. Wyatt
259	25 September 1888	Denis Hemahan Mary Fleming	Denis Hanrahan Mary Flemming 💍 1888/2263	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	34 29	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Marys Cathedral	88/2176		25 September 1888	Rev. J. McNamara
260	26 September 1888	Harry Keswick Druscilla Gigger	Harry Keswick Druscilla Gigger 💍 1888/2286	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	31 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	88/2233		26 September 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).