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 137

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
73	20 March 1889	James Ashwood Elizabeth Samplin	James Astwood Elizabeth Tamplin 💍 1889/223 James Cameron Elizabeth Harris 💍 1889/989	Widower Spinster	Labourer	37 23	Greswick Wellington	years years	Home of in Samplin South Road	89/279		20 March 1889	Mr. Edward Lewis
74	20 March 1889	Heinrich Boecker Annie Hutchins	Heinrich Boecker Annie Hitchins 💍 1889/1194	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	24 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	Wesley Church Terrematic Street	89/1136		20 March 1889	Rev. William Lee
75	20 March 1889	Henry Lemon Bryenton Julia Phillips	Henry Lemon Bryenton Julia Phillips 💍 1889/220	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	25 24	Wellington Wellington	1 months 3 months	Home of the Rev. Joseph Berry	89/276		20 March 1889	Rev. Joseph Berry
76	21 March 1889	Victor Richardson Hester Nixon	Victor Richardson Hester Noxon 💍 1889/294	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	27 23	Wellington Wellington	years 16 months	Registrars Office Wellington	89/325		21 March 1889	Mr. W. J. Wyatt
77	21 March 1889	Edward Price Florence Webb	Edward Price Florence Webb 💍 1889/556	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	35 21	Upper Hutt Upper Hutt	years years	Home of in Kinner Lecan Street	89/288		21 March 1889	Rev. William Lee
78	21 March 1889	William Dodd Alice Derbyshire	William Dodds Alice Derbyshire 💍 1889/226	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	22 21	Wellington Wellington	6 months 6 months	Home of in Paterson Cuba Street	89/281		21 March 1889	Rev. Charles Penney
79	22 March 1889	Alfred Norman Wickie Alice Annie Kaye	Alfred Norman Wilkie Alice Annie Keys 💍 1889/295	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	21 22	Upper Hutt Upper Hutt	years years	Registrars Office Wellington	89/326		22 March 1889	Mr. W. J. Wyatt
80	25 March 1889	John Alexander Heaslip Ada Dale	John Alexander McKenzie Ada Ball 💍 1889/2637	Widower Spinster	Warehouseman	34 26	Wellington Wellington	10 months 18 months	Registrars Office Wellington	89/327		25 March 1889	Mr. W. J. Wyatt
81	25 March 1889	John Charles James Kathleen Eades	John Charles James Kathleen Eades 💍 1889/557	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	24 23	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Eades Cuba Street	89/289		25 March 1889	Rev. William Lee
82	25 March 1889	Charles Taylor Janet Pride	Charles Taylor Janet Pryde 💍 1889/183	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	31 33	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Price Vivian Street	89/254		25 March 1889	Rev. J. Paterson
83	26 March 1889	Samuel Arcus Eliza Cox	Samuel Arcus Eliza Cox 💍 1889/1148 Daniel McLaughlin Eliza Cox 💍 1890/388	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	32 25	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. John's Church Dixon Street	89/1112		26 March 1889	Rev. J. Paterson
84	29 March 1889	Thomas George Wickham Ann Rose Agate	Thomas George Wickham Ann Rose Agate 💍 1889/296	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 20	Wellington Wellington	3 weeks years	Registrars Office Wellington	89/328	Stephen Agate, Father	29 March 1889	Mr. W. J. 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).