Intentions to Marry, 1889

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840401, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, May 23 2025

Page 069

District of Thames Quarter ending 31 March 1889 Registrar Alexander de Courcy Potterton

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

5 January 1889

Patrick Montagu Lawson
Mary Lawson

Patrick Montague
Mary Lawson
💍 1889/116

Bachelor
Spinster

Bushman
None

27
20

Mackay St.
Franklin St.

2 years
20 years

St. Francis' Church Thames

89/144

James Lawson father of minor

5 January 1889

Rev: P. O'Reilly Roman Catholic

No	1
Date of Notice	5 January 1889
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Montagu Lawson	Mary Lawson
BDM Match (84%)	Patrick Montague	Mary Lawson
	💍 1889/116
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bushman	None
Age	27	20
Dwelling Place	Mackay St.	Franklin St.
Length of Residence	2 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St. Francis' Church Thames
Folio	89/144
Consent	James Lawson father of minor
Date of Certificate	5 January 1889
Officiating Minister	Rev: P. O'Reilly Roman Catholic

7 January 1889

George Phillips
Margaret Webb

George Phillips
Margaret Webb
💍 1889/120

Bachelor
Spinster

Coach-Miner
None

20
19

Cochrane St.
Parawai

20 years
19 years

Dwelling house of Dr. Robert Webb

89/147

Dr. Robert Webb & Elizabeth Webb father & mother of the respective minors.

7 January 1889

Rev. J. G. Evans Church of England

No	2
Date of Notice	7 January 1889
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Phillips	Margaret Webb
	💍 1889/120
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Coach-Miner	None
Age	20	19
Dwelling Place	Cochrane St.	Parawai
Length of Residence	20 years	19 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling house of Dr. Robert Webb
Folio	89/147
Consent	Dr. Robert Webb & Elizabeth Webb father & mother of the respective minors.
Date of Certificate	7 January 1889
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. G. Evans Church of England

7 January 1889

Michael Fallon
Catherine Kerhaw

Michael Fallon
Catherine Keohane
💍 1889/118

Bachelor
Spinster

Settler
None

27
22

Hikutaia
Hikutaia

4 years
4 years

St. Francis' Church Thames

89/145

7 January 1889

Rev. P. O'Reilly Roman Catholic

No	3
Date of Notice	7 January 1889
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Michael Fallon	Catherine Kerhaw
BDM Match (91%)	Michael Fallon	Catherine Keohane
	💍 1889/118
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Settler	None
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Hikutaia	Hikutaia
Length of Residence	4 years	4 years
Marriage Place	St. Francis' Church Thames
Folio	89/145
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1889
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. O'Reilly Roman Catholic

9 January 1889

William Noah Climo
Eliza Ratcliffe

William Noah Climo
Eliza Ratcliffe
💍 1889/1372

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Music teacher

30
23

Tararu
Kirkwood St.

17 years
17 years

St. George's Church Thames

89/148

9 January 1889

Rev. F. G. Evans Church of England

No	4
Date of Notice	9 January 1889
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Noah Climo	Eliza Ratcliffe
	💍 1889/1372
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Music teacher
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Tararu	Kirkwood St.
Length of Residence	17 years	17 years
Marriage Place	St. George's Church Thames
Folio	89/148
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1889
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. G. Evans Church of England

24 January 1889

William Campbell
Christine McGregor

William Campbell
Christina McGregor
💍 1889/51

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Servant

24
26

Coromandel
Coromandel

3 days at Thames
3 days at Thames

Thames Registrar's Office

89/153

24 January 1889

A. de C. Potterton Registrar

No	5
Date of Notice	24 January 1889
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Campbell	Christine McGregor
BDM Match (97%)	William Campbell	Christina McGregor
	💍 1889/51
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Servant
Age	24	26
Dwelling Place	Coromandel	Coromandel
Length of Residence	3 days at Thames	3 days at Thames
Marriage Place	Thames Registrar's Office
Folio	89/153
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 January 1889
Officiating Minister	A. de C. Potterton Registrar

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 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).