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 561

District of Napier 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
151	25 April 1889	Wm Hannah Reed Sarah Ann Reed		Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	28 23	Napier Pitane	6 years 6 months	Presbyterian Church	89/1249		25 April 1889	Rev. D. Sidey
152	26 April 1889	Carl Frederith Hansen Wilhelmine Christine Krause	Carl Frederick Hansen Wilhelmina Cristina Krause 💍 1889/638	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Domestic	29 27	Port Ahuriri Napier	2 years 12 years	Residence of Duncan Miller	89/1266		26 April 1889	Rev. J. Parkinson
153	27 April 1889	Vere Bogle Octavia Hansen	Vere Bogle Clara Octavia Hansen 💍 1889/658	Bachelor Spinster	Paperhanger Dressmaker	25 17	Napier Napier	7 years 16 years	Residence of the bride's father, Wellesley Rd, Napier	89/1262	Father	27 April 1889	Rev. J. Parkinson, Church of England
154	28 April 1889	Joseph James Elizabeth Heathcote	Joseph James Elizabeth Heathcote 💍 1889/1338	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman Domestic	34 26	Heretaunga Napier	3 years 2 months	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Napier	89/1253		28 April 1889	Registrar S. J. Jago
155	29 April 1889	Frederick Young Emma Jane Pulled	Frederick Young Emma Ann Buller 💍 1889/655	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	29 20	Meanee Meanee	10 years England 15 years Taradale	Church of England	89/1259	Mother	29 April 1889	Rev. C. L. Tuke, Church of England
156	30 April 1889	James Hutchinson Louise Brenton	James Hutchins Louise Brenton 💍 1889/1331	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 23	Napier Napier	13 years 2 years	St. John's Cathedral, Napier	89/1247		30 April 1889	Rev. De Berdt Hovell, Church of England
157	31 April 1889	James Benjamin Pullen Elizabeth Ann Warren	James Benjamin Pullen Elizabeth Ann Warren 💍 1889/645	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	34 32	Napier Napier	14 years 25 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Napier	89/1255		31 April 1889	Registrar S. J. Jago
158	32 April 1889	Henry George Fenn Matilda Harriett Boyd	Henry George Fenn Matilda Harriet Boyd 💍 1889/634	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	26 21	Mahia Port Ahuriri	1 year 21 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriage	89/1254		32 April 1889	Registrar S. J. Jago

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).