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 498

District of Hawera Quarter ending 31 May 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
32	4 April 1889	Richard James Squire Charlotte Louisa Claridge	Richard James Squire Charlotte Louise Claridge 💍 1889/1243	Bachelor Spinster	painter domestic duties	28 24	Hawera Hawera	4 years 8 years	Church of England	89/1067		4 April 1889	Walter Herbert Hay
33	18 April 1889	Michael Martin Hogan Ellen Beatrice Anderson	Michael Martin Hogan Hellen Beatrice Anderson 💍 1889/1125	Bachelor Spinster	settler domestic duties	50 19	Te Roti Te Roti	10 years 9 years	The residence of David Rutherford Anderson at Te Roti	89/1064	David Rutherford Anderson, father of bride	18 April 1889	James G. Chapman
34	25 April 1889	Harry John Pringham Emily Jane Rolfe	Harry John Ringham Emily Jane Rolfe 💍 1889/1254	Bachelor Spinster	laborer domestic servant	25 18	Mokiria Hawera	10 years 9 years	The residence of John Rolfe, Hawera	89/1068	John Rolfe, father of bride	25 April 1889	Walter Herbert Hay
35	1 May 1889	Frederick George Freeman Sarah Jane McDermott	Frederic George Freeman Sarah Jane Maclernon 💍 1889/1261	Bachelor Spinster	laborer domestic servant	25 23	Hawera Hawera	10 years 3 years	The residence of John William Freeman, Hawera	89/1069		1 May 1889	Walter Herbert Hay
36	1 May 1889	James Henry Claridge Louisa Mary Taylor	James Henry Claridge Louisa Mary Taylor 💍 1889/1262	Bachelor Spinster	compositor governess	26 23	Hawera Hawera	9 years 14 days	Church of England	89/1070		1 May 1889	Walter Herbert Hay
37	2 May 1889	James Brophy Helena Bridget Martin	James Brophy Helena Bridget Martin 💍 1889/1119	Bachelor Spinster	farmer domestic servant	64 34	Hawera Hawera	3 days 6 months	Roman Catholic Church, Hawera	89/1059		2 May 1889	Andrew Delany Mulvihill
38	16 May 1889	John Grant Frost Mary Ann Woods	John Grant Forsyth Mary Ann Woods 💍 1889/1121	Bachelor Spinster	waiter housemaid	28 25	Hawera Hawera	3 weeks 6 months	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Hawera	89/1061		16 May 1889	Alfred Trimble, Deputy Registrar of Marriages, Hawera

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).