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 442

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 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
197	19 April 1888	William Hector Annie Hove	William Hunt Annie Morse 💍 1888/3512 William Meehan Annie Brown 💍 1888/2195 William Scoon Annie Mills 💍 1889/527 William White Annie Ray 💍 1888/818 William Knipler Annie Frier 💍 1888/686 William McDonald Annie Healey 💍 1888/2760 William Turley Annie Bayes 💍 1888/327	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Spinster	23 23	Ponsonby Auckland	3 yrs 3 yrs	Dwelling of J. [illegible]	88/1987		12 April 1888	Rev. [illegible] Wesleyan
198	19 April 1888	Thomas Thwaites Hannah Robertson	Thomas Thunder Hannah Scanlon 💍 1888/1099	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver Spinster	23 21	Ponsonby Freemans Bay	8 mos 7 yrs	Wesleyan Office	88/1027		12 April 1888	Rev. Owen Lord Wesleyan
199	19 April 1888	Wm Kelley Henrietta Smith	John Selley Henrietta Smith 💍 1888/1058	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman Spinster	23 24	Ponsonby Ponsonby	8 mos 2 yrs	Wesleyan Church	88/1008		12 April 1888	Rev. W. Gittos
200	19 April 1888	Henry Wallace Lawson		Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk Spinster	25 25	Ponsonby Auckland	5 yrs 2 yrs	Church of St Sepulchre	88/929		13 April 1888	Rev. T. R. Tarbutt Ch of England
201	19 April 1888	Alfred Herbert Ellen Charlotte Hermine	Alfred Herbert Gentil Ellen Charlotte Hermina Hitt 💍 1888/1020	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk Spinster	28 21	New Plymouth Cambridge	5 yrs 7 yrs	Church of St Sepulchre	88/969		13 April 1888	Rev. R. Reid Wesleyan
202	19 April 1888	Percy Reginald Lipscombe Caroline Hohannessen	Percy Reginald Lipscombe Caroline Johannessen 💍 1888/1007	Bachelor Spinster	Builder Spinster	26 19	Ponsonby Mt Roskill	14 yrs 2 yrs	Dwelling of Revd A. Reid	88/980	Johnson Father	14 April 1888	Rev. R. Reid Wesleyan
203	19 April 1888	Alexander Ferguson Kate Emily Ryder	Alexander Ferguson Kate Emily Ryder 💍 1888/95	Bachelor Spinster	Book Seller Spinster	28 20	Vermont Street Vincent Street	4 yrs 5 yrs	Wesleyan College Three Kings	88/935	James Frederick Ryder Father	16 April 1888	Rev. R. F. Macnicol Presbyterian

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).