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 131

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1889

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
1	2 January 1889	George Evan Stevenson Adalene Teresa Knapp	George Cron Stevenson Adaline Teresa Kuaff 💍 1889/3450	Bachelor Spinster	Architect	32 26	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Klapp, Arthur Street	89/3557		2 January 1889	Rev. W. H. West
2	2 January 1889	Alfred Gordon Mary McGrath	Alfred Carlson Mary McGrath 💍 1889/551	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	34 24	Wellington Wellington	years 7 months	Registrars Office	89/305		2 January 1889	Mr. T. W. Wyatt
3	3 January 1889	James Henry Smith Mary Eliza Galway	James Henry Smith Mary Eleanor Galwey 💍 1889/234	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	33 31	Wellington Wellington	1 day years	St. Marks Church, Christchurch	89/266 Wellington		3 January 1889	Rev. R. Coffey
4	3 January 1889	Alfred John Manuel Elizabeth Swain	Alfred John Mansell Elizabeth Swain 💍 1889/558	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Porter	27 22	Wellington Lower Hutt	years years	St. James Church, Lower Hutt	89/290		3 January 1889	Rev. Joshua Jones
5	3 January 1889	John Cummerford Mary Ann Manley	John Farquhar Mary Ann Fahey 💍 1889/2589	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	38 25	Wellington Wellington	1 week 1 year	St. Mary of the Angels	89/259		3 January 1889	Rev. P. Kerrigan
6	5 January 1889	William Good Ellen Steamy	William Good Ellen Heany 💍 1889/2636	Bachelor Widow	Clerk	49 46	Wellington Wellington	9 days 3 days	Registrars Office, Wellington	89/306		5 January 1889	Mr. T. W. Wyatt
7	5 January 1889	John Brooker Lucy Ellen Johnson	John Brooke Lucy Ellen Johnston 💍 1889/3473	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	32 20	Wellington Wellington	years 1 month	House of Mr. Fletcher, Courtenay Place	89/3550	Joseph Johnson, Father	5 January 1889	Rev. W. S. Potter
8	7 January 1889	Thomas Hugh Wade Gerity Caroline Emma Patterson	Thomas Hugh Wade-Guy Caroline Emma Patterson 💍 1889/542	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 27	Wellington Wellington	4 days 4 days	St. Pauls Cathedral	89/297		7 January 1889	Rev. John Still
9	9 January 1889	Charles Evan Lycear Gardiner Ada Fanny Sawyers	Charles Edwin Dyers Gawler Ada Fanny Sawyer 💍 1889/227	Widower Spinster	Cook	38 29	Wellington Wellington	years years	Wesley Church, Taranaki Street	89/282		9 January 1889	Rev. W. Lee
10	9 January 1889	William Hugh Ward Jane Elizabeth Arcus	William Hugh Ward Joan Elizabeth Arens 💍 1889/914	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	24 25	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Rev. G. S. Ogg, Taranaki Street	89/847		9 January 1889	Rev. G. S. Ogg
11	10 January 1889	George Foster Jane Mason	George Foster Jane Mason 💍 1889/179	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	35 27	Wellington Wellington	years 1 week	House of Mr. G. Lockwood, Cambridge Terrace	89/251		10 January 1889	Rev. W. Powell
12	11 January 1889	Richard Henry Susannah Johnson	Richard McAvoy Susannah Johnson 💍 1889/171	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	27 24	Wellington Wellington	5 weeks 1 month	House of Mrs. Crawford, Cambridge Terrace	89/250		11 January 1889	Rev. W. Powell

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).