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 135

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
49	14 February 1889	Edward Byron Johanna O'Bryan	Edward Byrne Johanna O'Brien 💍 1889/562	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	24 27	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Mary's Cathedral	89/294		16 February 1889	Revd. J. Mc Namara
50	14 February 1889	Anthony Seemanger Rebecca Howard	Anthony Isemonger Rebecca Hassard 💍 1889/310	Bachelor Spinster	Gunner	30 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrar's office, Wellington	89/318		18 February 1889	W. T. Wyatt
51	14 February 1889	Michael Small Mary Seeman	Michael Small Beasy Tiernan 💍 1889/170	Bachelor Spinster	Plate Layer	29 26	Lower Hutt Lower Hutt	years years	Roman Catholic Church, Lower Hutt	89/247		19 February 1889	Revd. John Lane
52	14 February 1889	John Thompson Mary Saylor	John Thompson Amy Taylor 💍 1889/184 John Thompson Victoria Marie Dyer 💍 1889/3308	Bachelor Spinster	Whitesmith	47 29	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Coombs, Taranaki Street	89/255		19 February 1889	Mr. G. Corstall
53	21 February 1889	Henry Duncan Crawford Helen Pearce	Henry Duncan Crawford Helen Pearce 💍 1889/187	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	29 25	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Peter's Church	89/258		21 February 1889	Revd. H. E. Tuckey
54	23 February 1889	Joseph Trainland Emma Louisa Glading		Widower Widow	Custodian	49 36	Wanganui Wellington	years 2 months	Registrar's office, Wellington	89/321		23 February 1889	W. T. Wyatt
55	25 February 1889	Robert Archibald Blair Jessie Bragg	Robert Archibald Hearns Jessie Bragge 💍 1889/230	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	25 25	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Bragg, Adelaide Road	89/285		25 February 1889	Revd. Wm. Lee
56	25 February 1889	Albert White Mary Gallagher	Albert White Mary Gallagher 💍 1889/225	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	28 22	Wellington Wellington	9 months years	St. Mary of the Angels	89/262		25 February 1889	Revd. P. Kerrigan
57	26 February 1889	Thomas Alfred Evenden Mary Josephine Connell	Thomas Alfred Evenden Mary Josephine O'Connell 💍 1889/214	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	20 18	Wellington Wellington	3 months 3 months	St. Mary of the Angels	89/261	William Evenden, Father of Groom; Joseph Mary John Connell, Father of Bride	26 February 1889	Revd. P. Kerrigan
58	26 February 1889	George Walter Webb Mary Sarah Fullford	George Walter Webb Mary Sarah Fullford 💍 1889/215	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer	19 19	Lower Hutt Wellington	years years	St. Mark's Church	89/270	George Webb, Father of Groom; William Fullford, Father of Bride	26 February 1889	Revd. R. Coffey
59	26 February 1889	Joseph Francis Hargreaves Lucy Margaretha Rabe	Josephus Francis Hargreaves Lucy Margretta Rabe 💍 1889/229	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	25 23	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Rabe, Ingestre Street	89/284		26 February 1889	Revd. Wm. Lee
60	1 March 1889	Thomas Davidson Harriet Howe	Thomas Daniels Harriet Howe 💍 1889/291	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	28 21	Wellington Wellington	years 10 months	Registrar's office, Wellington	89/322		1 March 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).