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 432

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 June 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
111	1 April 1889	William Deckman Elizabeth Grace French	William Beckmann Elizabeth Grace Grant 💍 1889/972 William Duncan Elizabeth Taylor 💍 1889/3005 William Dron Elizabeth Drummond 💍 1889/1301	Bachelor Spinster	confectioner	22 18	Auckland Auckland	16 months 18 months	Registrar's Office	89/958	Father	1 April 1889	William Owen Lord, Registrar
112	2 April 1889	Edward Woodall Elizabeth Ann Cooper	Edward Woodall Elizabeth Ann Cooper 💍 1889/1858	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	28 18	Auckland Auckland	6 years 6 years	Church of St Matthew's	89/819	Father	2 April 1889	John Cooper, Church of England
113	2 April 1889	William Corpe Ellen Jane Perkins	William George Broomfield Ellen Jane Perkins 💍 1889/1031	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 19	Tauranga Creek Tauranga Creek	20 years 11 years	Dwelling of Joseph Perkins, Redfield Road	89/940	Joseph Perkins, Guardian	2 April 1889	Revd T. Torrie, Presbyterian
114	2 April 1889	John William Yates-Ray Mary Ann Bablin	John William Yates Kay Mary Ann Baptist 💍 1889/1019	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	21 20	Auckland Auckland	7 years 14 days	Dwelling of John William Yates-Ray	89/929	Notice	19 April 1889	Revd E. Best, Wesleyan
115	3 April 1889	William Sadler Harriet Reid	William Padlie Harriet Reid 💍 1889/1034	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 20	Papatoitoi Kingsland	3 years	Church of St Andrews	89/920	Elizabeth Ross, mother	3 April 1889	Revd A. Carrick, Presbyterian
116	3 April 1889	James Henry Tidowen Agnes Eva Kerr	James Henry Ames Agnes Eva Kean 💍 1889/985	Widower Spinster	City Collector	48 28	Wellington Wellington	45 years 10 years	Holy Trinity Church	89/947		3 April 1889	Revd J. Bates, Church of England

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).