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 522

District of Wellington 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
15	1 April 1889	Charles William Borrow Sabella Revenue Sim		Bachelor Spinster	Phrenologist	32 28	Wellington Wellington	2 months 1 year	Registrars office, Wellington	89/1177		1 April 1889	W. T. Wyatt
16	1 April 1889	Thomas John Chapman Jessie Beck	Thomas John Chapman Jessie Beck 💍 1889/1149	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	29 22	Wellington Wellington	4 years 1 week	St Johns Church, Dixon Street	89/1113		1 April 1889	Revd. J. Paterson
27	1 April 1889	Robert Sadah Green Andrew Cordelia Shennan	Robert Esdale Green Adeline Cordelia Skennan 💍 1889/1225	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	23 22	Wellington Wellington	7 months 4 years	House of Revd. J.K. Elliott, Majoribanks Street	89/1170		1 April 1889	Revd. J.K. Elliott
28	1 April 1889	James Brown Lucy Grigg	James Brown Lucy Grigg 💍 1889/1210	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	35 19	Wellington Wellington	7 months 4 years	Registrars office, Wellington	89/1178	Ellen Grigg, mother	1 April 1889	W. T. Wyatt
29	3 April 1889	Thomas Simpson Ann Mitcheto	Thomas Simpson Ann Nutchell 💍 1889/1198	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith	36 37	Petone Petone	4 years 1 year	House of Bride	89/1139		3 April 1889	Revd. C.S. Ogg
40	5 April 1889	Frederick Edmund Handrick Alice Walbridge Oakley	Frederick Edmund Theodore Hardwick Alice Wallridge Oakley 💍 1889/2799	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 19	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	St Pauls Cathedral	89/1152	Martha Chapman, mother	5 April 1889	Revd. John Still
41	6 April 1889	William Clogg Amy Leack	William Cloggie Amy Leask 💍 1889/1211	Bachelor Widow	Hotel Keeper	31 30	Wellington Wellington	2 months 1 day	Registrars office, Wellington	89/1179		6 April 1889	W. T. Wyatt
42	8 April 1889	Frederick William Hamilton Annie Cochran	Frederick William Junker Annie Cochrane Hamilton 💍 1889/1227	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	24 23	Petone Petone	4 years 4 years	House of Mrs. Hamilton, Petone	89/1172		8 April 1889	Revd. J.K. Elliott
93	8 April 1889	John Andersen Helen Marie Larsen	John Andersen Helen Marie Larsen 💍 1889/1212	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	30 18	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Registrars office, Wellington	89/1180	Canute Larsen, father	8 April 1889	W. T. Wyatt
94	9 April 1889	William Hastings Ellen Maria Keating	William Hastings Jones Ellen Maria Keating 💍 1889/1213	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 21	Wellington Wellington	1 week 2 months	Registrars office, Wellington	89/1181		9 April 1889	W. T. Wyatt
95	9 April 1889	William Short Isabella Hannah Rowell	William Shirer Isabella Munro Rowell 💍 1889/1147	Bachelor Spinster	Minister	30 28	Wellington Wellington	9 months 1 day	St Johns Church, Dixon Street	89/1111		9 April 1889	Revd. J. Paterson
96	11 April 1889	James McCormick Harriet Maud Winsor	James McCormack Harriet Maud Winser 💍 1889/1431	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 24	Wellington Wellington	4 years 3 days	St Marks Church	89/1155		10 April 1889	Revd. R. Coffey

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).