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 133

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
25	25 January 1889	Joseph William Constable Catherine Ann Vickers	Joseph William Andrews Catherine Ann Vickers 💍 1889/554	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	29 24	Wellington Wellington	4 days 3 days	Registrars office Wellington	89/309		25 January 1889	W. T. Wyatt
26	25 January 1889	Robert George Peaven Kate Trask	Robert George Bowen Kate Brook 💍 1889/236	Bachelor Spinster	Traveller	45 34	Wellington Petone	years 1 year	St Marks Church	89/268		28 January 1889	Rev. R. Coffey
27	28 January 1889	Frederick Archibald Keeman Emma Ada Whitfield Bram	Frederick Archibald Kiernan Emma Adams Whitfield Brown 💍 1889/288	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 23	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Smarthy Wellington	89/311		28 January 1889	W. T. Wyatt
28	28 January 1889	Horace Baxter Jessie Easton	Horace Baxter Jessie Easton 💍 1889/546	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Auditor	28 24	Wellington Wellington	3 days 4 days	St Pauls Cathedral	89/301		29 January 1889	Rev. John Still
29	29 January 1889	Reginald John Keith Jackson Annie Maria Brewe Pearce	Reginald John Keith Jackson Susi Marion Drewe Pearce 💍 1889/559	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	25 28	Lower Hutt Lower Hutt	years years	St James Church Lower Hutt	89/291		29 January 1889	Rev. Joshua Jones
30	31 January 1889	Thomas Kelly Mary Ann Johns	Thomas Kelly Mary Ann Johns 💍 1889/299	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	29 18	Ohariu Valley Karori	years years	Registrars office Wellington	89/312	Thomas Johns, Father	31 January 1889	W. T. Wyatt
31	31 January 1889	William Fox Mary Ann Wilson	William Fox Mary Ann Wilson 💍 1889/180 William Lee Catherine Wilson 💍 1889/2727 William Gold Johan Wilson 💍 1890/83	Bachelor Spinster	Barman	25 19	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Mary of the Angels	89/260	Thomas Wilson, Father	31 January 1889	Rev. P. Kerrigan
32	4 February 1889	Thomas John Bridget Humphry	Thomas Tobin Bridget Helen Murphy 💍 1889/561	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	32 23	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Marys Cathedral	89/293		4 February 1889	Rev. J. McNamara
33	5 February 1889	George Malcolm Rout Margaret Jane Steele	George Malcolm Rout Margaret Jane Steele 💍 1889/182	Bachelor Spinster	Land Agent	25 20	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	St Johns Church	89/253	Margaret Jane Steele, mother	5 February 1889	Rev. J. Paterson
34	5 February 1889	David Robertson Margaret Mackle	David Robertson Margaret Mackle 💍 1889/232	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	29 28	Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 days	Presbyterian Church Kent Terrace	89/264		5 February 1889	Rev. J. K. Elliott
35	5 February 1889	John Hollis Emily Fossey	John Hollis Emily Fossey 💍 1889/2632	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	29 28	Wellington Wellington	years years	Wesley Church Taranaki Street	89/275		5 February 1889	Rev. Joseph Berry
36	6 February 1889	Henry Ranson Margaret Jane Renton	Harry Ranson Margaret Jane Renton 💍 1889/305	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 19	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	89/313	John Henry Renton, Father	6 February 1889	W. T. Wyatt

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).