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 1302

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
345	20 December 1888	Henry John Sullivan Mary Jane Boocock	Henry John Sullivan Mary Jane Boocock 💍 1888/2928	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	28 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Marks Church	88/2996		20 December 1888	Rev. R. Coffey
346	21 December 1888	Charles James Russell Eliza Ann Prestidge	Charles James Russel Eliza Ann Prestridge 💍 1888/2871	Bachelor Widow	Settler	46 47	Wellington Wellington	18 months 2 weeks	House of Mr. Lankshear, Lambton Quay	88/2987		21 December 1888	Rev. Joseph Berry
347	21 December 1888	Charles Bary Minnie Doile	Charles Bary Minnie Doile 💍 1888/2866	Bachelor Spinster	School Teacher	25 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Doile, Courtenay Place	88/2983		21 December 1888	Rev. J. Paterson
348	22 December 1888	John Robert Nash Flora Ellen Brown	John Robert Nash Flora Ellen Brown 💍 1889/231	Widower Spinster	Dairyman	49 30	Wade Town Wellington	years years	House of Rev. J. K. Elliott, Kent Terrace	89/263		22 December 1888	Rev. J. K. Elliott
349	22 December 1888	Luigi Merette Alice Maud Mary Hoskins	Luigi Breretti Alice Maud Mary Hoskins 💍 1888/3059	Bachelor Spinster	Fisherman	31 17	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars Office, Wellington	88/3028	John Hoskins, Father	22 December 1888	W. I. Wyay
350	29 December 1888	Arthur James Hind Florence Amelia Dowden	Arthur James Hind Florence Amelia Dowden 💍 1888/2931	Bachelor Spinster	Upholsterer	23 23	Wellington Dunedin	years years	St. Marks Church, Dunedin	88/2999		29 December 1888	Rev. R. Coffey
351	29 December 1888	Charles Prosper Spearman Agnes Hunt	Charles Prosper Spearman Agnes Hunt 💍 1888/3060	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	27 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars Office, Wellington	88/3029		29 December 1888	W. I. Wyay
352	29 December 1888	George Frederick Shannon Eleanor Ann Belderfield	George Frederick Shannon Eleanor Ann Delderfield 💍 1889/221	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	25 25	Wellington Wellington	1 week 2 weeks	House of Mr. Turner, Willis Street	89/277		29 December 1888	Mr. Edward Lewis

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).