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 1300

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
321	3 December 1888	Henry Alexander White Agnes McInnes	Henry Alexander White Agnes McInnes 💍 1888/2925	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	24 19	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr McInnes, Douglas Wallace Street	88/2993	Christina McInnes, mother	3 December 1888	Rev. J. K. Elliott
322	4 December 1888	James Henry Butt Alice Newson	James Henry Butt Alice Newson 💍 1888/2845	Bachelor Spinster	Expressman	23 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Captain Lambart, Cambridge Terrace	88/2961		4 December 1888	Rev. Wm. Lee
323	5 December 1888	William McCulloch Agnes Mullins		Bachelor Widow	Labourer	30 30	Wellington Kaiwarra	years years	Registrars office, Wellington	no marriage		5 December 1888	W. J. Wyatt
324	6 December 1888	Robert William Cuthbert Kate Wade	Robert William Cuthbert Kate Wade 💍 1888/3073	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	21 18	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office, Wellington	88/3018	Bridget Wade, mother	6 December 1888	W. J. Wyatt
325	6 December 1888	Charles Hedges Vera Ellen Scott	Charles Hedges Vera Ellen Scott 💍 1888/3074	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	21 21	Wellington Wellington	years 1 year	Registrars office, Wellington	88/3019		6 December 1888	W. J. Wyatt
326	6 December 1888	Patrick Martin Annie Park	Patrick Martin Annie Park 💍 1888/3075	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 40	Petone Petone	years years	Registrars office, Wellington	88/3020		6 December 1888	W. J. Wyatt
327	7 December 1888	Dan Mouton Mary Ann Fake	Dan Mouton Mary Ann Fake 💍 1888/3076	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	21 20	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office, Wellington	88/3021	Sarah Fake, Father	7 December 1888	W. J. Wyatt
328	8 December 1888	George Thomas Powell Ada Sarah Barker	George Thomas Powell Ada Sarah Barker 💍 1888/2848	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 25	Wellington Wellington	1 week 2 days	St Pauls Cathedral	88/2964		8 December 1888	Revd John Still
329	10 December 1888	John Elliott Ada Jones	John Elliott Ada Mary Jones 💍 1888/2860	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	21 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr James Jones, Owen Street	88/2977		10 December 1888	Revd W. S. Potter
330	11 December 1888	Isaac Cooley Sarah Hannah Jacobs	Isaac Cooley Sarah Hannah Jacobs 💍 1888/3079	Widower Widow	Farmer	68 60	Lower Hutt Wellington	years years	Registrars office, Wellington	88/3024		11 December 1888	W. J. Wyatt
331	12 December 1888	Henry Atkinson Crockett Louisa Lavinia Hulbert	Henry Atkinson Crockett Louisa Lavinia Hulbert 💍 1888/3078	Bachelor Spinster	Steward	25 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office, Wellington	88/3023		12 December 1888	W. J. Wyatt
332	12 December 1888	Walter Hill Martha Ann Lilly	Walter Hill Martha Ann Lilly 💍 1889/181	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	22 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr Hill, Courtenay Place	88/252		12 December 1888	Rev. 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).