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 534

District of Wellington Quarter ending 20 June 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
173	23 June 1888	Henry John Louis Augarde Amy Petitt	Henry JOhn Louis Augarde Amy Pettit 💍 1888/1244	Widower Spinster	Accountant	67 46	Wellington Wellington	years years	Home of Mr. E. Lewis Ingestre Street	88/1200		23 June 1888	Mr. Can Lewis
174	25 June 1888	Charles Johnson Mary Memory	Charles Johnson Mary Memory 💍 1888/1288	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	35 21	Wellington Wellington	years 4 months	Registrars office Wellington	88/1248		25 June 1888	Mr. H. I. Wyatt
175	26 June 1888	Edward Bolton Bristow Edith Mary Tennell	Edward Bolton Bristow Edith Mary Vernell 💍 1888/1256	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	31 20	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Peters Church	88/1212	Elizabeth Tennell mother	26 June 1888	Ven. Archdeacon Stock
176	26 June 1888	James Stewart Elizabeth Smith	James Stewart Elizabeth Smith 💍 1888/1289 John Stephen Prebble Elizabeth Smith 💍 1888/2376	Bachelor Spinster		24 22	Wellington Wellington	years 14 months	Registrars office Wellington	88/1249		26 June 1888	Mr. H. I. Wyatt
177	27 June 1888	Edward Randell Jones Emiline Emma Louise Jones	Edward Randell Emiline Emma Louise Jones 💍 1888/1290	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 23	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	88/1250		27 June 1888	Mr. H. I. Wyatt
178	28 June 1888	William Bourn Emily Keast	William Bourn Emily Keast 💍 1888/1291	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	27 25	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	88/1251		28 June 1888	Mr. H. I. Wyatt
179	29 June 1888	John Johnson Annie Petersen	John Johnson Annie Petersen 💍 1888/1292	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	29 21	Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 days	Registrars office Wellington	88/1252		29 June 1888	Mr. H. I. Wyatt
180	29 June 1888	Albert Algar Clara Stockin	Albert Algar Clara Hoskin 💍 1888/2173	Widower Spinster	Tailor	43 27	Wellington Wellington	15 months years	St. Pauls Cathedral	88/2169		29 June 1888	Rev. John Still

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).