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 1298

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
297	14 November 1888	William Ayers Elizabeth Cousins	William Ayers Eliza Cousins 💍 1888/2919	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	33 23	Wellington Wellington	16 months 12 months	Registrars office Wellington	88/3010		14 November 1888	W. D. Wyatt
298	14 November 1888	Denis O'Neill Catherine McCarthy	Denis O'Neill Catherine McCarthy 💍 1888/3580	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Mary of the Angels	88/3586		14 November 1888	Rev. P. Kemigan
299	15 November 1888	William Clingberg Jane Lambie	William Lochhead Mary Lambie 💍 1888/3558	Bachelor Spinster	Train Examiner	30 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	88/3011		15 November 1888	W. D. Wyatt
300	15 November 1888	Thomas James Smith Jeannie Elizabeth O'Bierne	Thomas James Smith Jeannie Elizabeth O'Beirne 💍 1888/2926	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 25	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Charles Church	88/2994		15 November 1888	Rev. R. Coffey
301	16 November 1888	Walter Robson Elizabeth Bergofer	Walter Robson Elizabeth Bergofer 💍 1888/2841	Bachelor Spinster	Photographer	46 32	Wellington Wellington	4 days 4 days	House of Rev. C. Penney Majoribanks Street	88/2958		16 November 1888	Rev. C. Penney
302	17 November 1888	John O'Brien Julia Ashton	John O'Brien Julia Ashton 💍 1888/2836	Bachelor Spinster	Driver	22 18	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Marys Cathedral	88/2953	Henry Ashton, Father	17 November 1888	Rev. J. McNamara
303	17 November 1888	William Blanford Eliza Mary Bull	William Blanford Eliza Mary Bull 💍 1888/2921	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	29 26	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	88/3012		17 November 1888	W. D. Wyatt
304	19 November 1888	Henry Lloyd Chartmall Sarah Brookholding Tompkins	Henry Lloyd Dartnall Sarah Brookholding Tompkins 💍 1888/2922	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	35 25	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	Registrars office Wellington	88/3013		19 November 1888	W. D. Wyatt
305	19 November 1888	Moses Kidd Elizabeth Jane Langdon	Moses Kidd Elizabeth Jane Longdon 💍 1888/3582	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	23 18	Wellington Wellington	18 months years	Primitive Methodist Church Sydney Street	88/3588	Charles Frederick Langdon, Father	19 November 1888	Rev. John Nixon
306	19 November 1888	William Henry McKay Mary Roselynn Duncan	William Henry McKay Mary Rosslynn Duncan 💍 1888/2923	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	24 22	Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 days	Registrars office Wellington	88/3014		19 November 1888	W. D. Wyatt
307	20 November 1888	Walter Godfrey Mantell Catherine Louie Margarita Bucholy	Walter Godfrey Mantell Catherine Louis Marguerite Bucholy 💍 1888/2847	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	24 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Pauls Cathedral	88/2963		20 November 1888	Rev. John Still
308	22 November 1888	James Vernon Henry Butler Johanna McDonald Henry	James Vernon Henry Butler Johanna McDonald Henry 💍 1888/2924	Bachelor Spinster	Fitter	30 30	Wellington Wellington	7 weeks years	Registrars office Wellington	88/3015		22 November 1888	W. D. 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).