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 524

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
109	18 April 1889	Samuel Thacker Emily Levenson	Samuel Shacker Emily Stevenson 💍 1889/1145	Bachelor Spinster	Postmaker	23 21	Palmerston North Wellington	years	Home of Mr Hugh McGregor, Daniel Street	89/1110		18 April 1889	Rev. G. Paterson
110	20 April 1889	Thomas Alfred Gray Mabel Catherine Murray		Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	28 22	Wellington Wellington	4 months 3 days	Presbyterian Church	89/1114		20 April 1889	Rev. G. Paterson
111	20 April 1889	Thomas Alfred Ryles Mary Ann Hayles	Thomas Alfred Byles Mary Ann Hoyze Bills 💍 1889/1202	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	24 19	Wellington Wellington	3 days year	Primitive Methodist Church	89/1121	James Richard Bills, Father	20 April 1889	Rev. John Nixon
112	20 April 1889	Nathan Brennan Ellen Breen	Matthew Brennan Ellen Breen 💍 1889/1438	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 23	Wellington Wellington	1 year 1 year	St. Mary's Cathedral	89/1143		20 April 1889	Rev. G. McNamara
113	20 April 1889	William Warren Emma Eathwells	William Warren Emma Eatwell 💍 1889/1433	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 23	Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 days	St. Mark's Church	89/1157		20 April 1889	Rev. R. Coffey
114	23 April 1889	George Baker Harriet Burman	George Baker Harriet Burman 💍 1889/1435	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 18	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Rev. R. Coffey, Sussex Square	89/1159	William Edward Burman, Father	23 April 1889	Rev. R. Coffey
115	24 April 1889	Michael Landers Mary O'Sullivan	Michael Landers Mary O'Sullivan 💍 1889/1444 Michael Spelman Margaret O'Sullivan 💍 1889/255	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	34 32	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Mary's Cathedral	89/1144		24 April 1889	Rev. G. McNamara
116	24 April 1889	John Crawshaw Alice Emily Thompson	John Crawshaw Alice Emily Thompson 💍 1889/1216 John Gray Alice Maud Thompson 💍 1890/87	Bachelor Spinster	Commission Agent	25 24	Wellington Wellington	7 days 5 weeks	Registrars Office, Wellington	89/1184		24 April 1889	W. T. Wyatt
117	24 April 1889	Henry Ward Annie Smedden	Henry Ward Annie Snedden 💍 1889/1187 Henry Ward Hannah Mary Hogan 💍 1890/270	Widower Spinster	Storeman	33 30	Wellington Wellington	4 days 9 months	House of Mr Symonds, Taranaki Street	89/1129		24 April 1889	Rev. W. Oliver
118	24 April 1889	George William Linghard Catherine Adair	George William Longhurst Catherine Adair 💍 1889/1217	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars Office, Wellington	89/1185		24 April 1889	W. T. Wyatt
119	24 April 1889	William Bennett Catherine Bock	William Bennett Catherine Cock 💍 1889/1152	Widower Widow	Clerk	54 35	Wellington Wellington	5 days 9 months	St. Mary of the Angels	89/1116		24 April 1889	Rev. P. Kerrigan
120	24 April 1889	David Walsh Kate Lynch	David Walsh Kate Lynch 💍 1889/1445	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	20 22	Wellington Wellington	4 months 10 months	St. Mary's Cathedral	89/1148		24 April 1889	Rev. G. McNamara

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).