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 011

District of Wangarei Quarter ending 31 March 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
207	7 March 1888	Michael Owen Green Repeka Heremia	Michael Owen Breen Repeka Heremia 💍 1888/235	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	28 28	Orewa Valley Wangarei Orewa Valley Wangarei	12 months 2 years	Office of Registrar Wangarei	88/12		7 March 1888	Registrar Wangarei
230	9 January 1888	Hilbani Kerr Isabella Annie Wilson	William Kerr Isabella Annie Wilson 💍 1888/236	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	32 24	Wangarei Wangarei	2 weeks 24 years	Residence of J. H. Hutson Woodhill Wangarei	88/13		9 January 1888	Rev B. Hutson Presbyterian
231	16 January 1888	Henry Thomas Handforth Rosetta Kenworthy	Henry Thomas Handforth Rosetta Kenworthy 💍 1888/238	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	21 26	Rehanston Wangarei Rehanston Wangarei	12 months 4 days	Residence of Henry Thomas Handforth Rehanston Wangarei	88/15		28 January 1888	Rev J. H. Nankivell Episcopalean
232	31 January 1888	William Henry Mortimer Emily Webb	William Henry Mortimore Emily Webb 💍 1888/256	Bachelor Spinster	Sundigger	33 19	Parihaki Wangarei Parihaki Wangarei	6 months 3 days	Registrars Office Wangarei	88/19	William Webb Father	31 January 1888	Registrar Wangarei
233	31 January 1888	Frederick Smith Emily Clothworthy	Frederick Smith Emily Clotworthy 💍 1888/237	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 22	Awaroa Wangarei Whareora Wangarei	22 years 22 years	Residence of Nathaniel Clothworthy Whareora Wangarei	88/14		31 January 1888	Rev B. Hutson Presbyterian
234	14 February 1888	Cecil Sydney Vernon Jessie Jane Munro	Cecil Sydney Vernon Jessie Jane Munro 💍 1888/239	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 23	Wangarei Kamo Wangarei	3 days 8 years	Residence of J. Munro Kamo	88/16		14 February 1888	Rev J. H. Nankivell Episcopalean
235	18 February 1888	Alfred Collingsington Mary Oshea	Alfred Collington Mary OShea 💍 1888/233	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	38 22	Otonga East Wangarei Wangarei	7 years 3 days	Office of Registrar Wangarei	88/10		18 February 1888	Registrar Wangarei
236	24 February 1888	George Davis Fullford Eliza Matilda Downe Wilson	George Jarvis Fullford Eliza Matilda Downe 💍 1888/234	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor or Assistant	43 33	Wangarei Wangarei	6 months 2 years	Office of Registrar Wangarei	88/11		24 February 1888	Registrar Wangarei

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).