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 1297

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 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
285	31 October 1888	Bertram Walter Bird Bertha Charlotte Durant	Bertram Walter Bird Bertha Charlotte Durrant 💍 1888/2876	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	20 17	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr Durant, Constable Street	88/2969	Thomas Bird, Father; William Durant, Father	31 October 1888	Mr. Edward Lewis
286	3 November 1888	Thomas John Kaywood Ellen Ledbetter	Thomas John Kaywood Ellen Ledbetter 💍 1888/2844	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 23	Wellington Wellington	years 3 months	Wesley Church, Taranaki Street	88/2960		3 November 1888	Revd. Joseph Berry
287	3 November 1888	John Armour Thomson Annie Charlotte Letham	John Armour Thomson Annie Charlotte Letham 💍 1888/3573	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	30 26	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Andrews Church	88/3579		3 November 1888	Revd. C. S. Ogg
288	3 November 1888	Stephen Burns Mary Isabel Stevens	Stephen Curtis Mary Isabel Stevens 💍 1888/2878	Widower Spinster	Pattern maker	42 28	Petone Lower Hutt	years years	St. James	88/2971		3 November 1888	Ven. the Archdeacon Fancourt
289	5 November 1888	William Henry Hook Martha Jenkins	William Henry Hook Martha Jenkins 💍 1888/2862	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	22 27	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr Hook, Grainger Street	88/2979		5 November 1888	Revd. J. Paterson
290	5 November 1888	Stanley Wemyss Hannah Elizabeth Crow	Stanley Wemyss Hannah Elizabeth Crowe 💍 1888/2916	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	26 25	Wellington Wellington	40 days years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	88/3008		5 November 1888	Mr. W. T. Wyatt
291	6 November 1888	Henry Foreman Mary O'Connell	Henry Foreman Mary O'Connell 💍 1888/2834	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 26	Wellington Wellington	1 year years	St. Mary's Cathedral	88/2951		6 November 1888	Revd. J. McNamara
292	6 November 1888	Samuel Balcomo Emma Pratt	Samuel Balcome Emma Pratt 💍 1888/2917	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	21 20	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	88/3009	Thomas Pratt, Father	6 November 1888	Mr. W. T. Wyatt
293	7 November 1888	John Thomas Dumbell Martha Ellen Luschell	John Thomas Dumhell Martha Ellen Mitchell 💍 1888/3617	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Servant	29 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mrs Luschell, College Street	88/3613		7 November 1888	Revd. John Dumbell
294	7 November 1888	Frederick Albert Dryden Elizabeth Emily Roberts	Frederick Albert Dryden Elizabeth Emily Roberts 💍 1888/2846	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	26 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr Roberts, Barker Street	88/2962		7 November 1888	Revd. James Wallis
295	8 November 1888	Maurice Cronin Mary O'Driscoll	Maurice Cronin Mary O'Driscole 💍 1888/2835	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	36 22	Wellington Wellington	1 month 12 months	St. Mary's Cathedral	88/2952		8 November 1888	Revd. J. McNamara
296	8 November 1888	Robert George Strickland Lily Rose Eagle	Robert George Strickland Lily Rose Eagle 💍 1888/2863	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	35 18	Wellington Wellington	1 week years	House of Mr Eagle, Cambridge Terrace	88/2980	Rose Eagle, Mother	8 November 1888	Revd. J. Paterson

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).