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 892

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 30 September 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
24	17 July 1889	Thomas Arthur Dawson Catherine Alice Collard	Thomas Arthur Dewson Catherine Alice Collard 💍 1889/1940	Bachelor Spinster	Carver	20 17	Wanganui Aramoho	3 yrs 17 yrs	In the residence of Mr. J.D. Collard	89/2021	J.D. Collard, father	31 July 1889	H.R. Dewsbury, Wesleyan
25	20 July 1889	Charles Lee Margaret Quinn	Charles Lee Margaret Quinn 💍 1889/1948	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 17	Fordell Wanganui	3 yrs 14 yrs	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	89/2020	Margaret Quinn, mother	20 July 1889	S.H. Noon, Registrar
26	3 August 1889	John McKay Morton Anne Walker	John McKay Morton Anne Walker 💍 1889/1936	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	31 23	Wanganui Wanganui	21 yrs 9 mos.	In the residence of Mr. James Kearse, Nixon St., Wanganui	89/2017		3 August 1889	James Treadwell, Presbyterian
27	6 August 1889	Alfred Walker Emma Sophia Holder	Alfred Walker Emma Sophia Holder 💍 1889/1941	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 23	Aramoho Durietown	28 yrs 8 mos.	In the residence of Mr. Miss Holder, Durietown	89/2022		6 August 1889	H.R. Dewsbury, Wesleyan
28	6 August 1889	William Laines Piriha Hinskomai Te Aka	William Caines Piriha Hinekomai Te Ika 💍 1889/1949	Widower Widow	Farmer	73 56	Pikopiko Pikopiko	40 yrs 6 yrs	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	89/2029		6 August 1889	S.H. Noon, Registrar
29	14 August 1889	James McGrail Lucy Allan		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 25	Brunswick Makirikiri Valley	6 yrs 25 yrs	In the residence of Mr. Richard Allan, Makirikiri Valley	89/2023		14 August 1889	H.R. Dewsbury, Wesleyan
30	23 August 1889	Joseph Wahains Annie Elizabeth Hall	Joseph Williams Annie Elizabeth Hall 💍 1889/1943	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	21 15	Wanganui Wanganui	12 yrs 3 yrs	In the residence of Mr. S.H. Noon, Niblett St., Wanganui	89/2028	No person having authority to give consent	23 August 1889	H.R. Dewsbury, Wesleyan
31	29 August 1889	William Middlemas Douglas Frances Russell		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 25	Wanganui Wanganui	4 days 4 wks	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	89/2030		29 August 1889	S.H. Noon, Registrar
32	31 August 1889	Robert Reid Elizabeth Stower	Robert Reid Elizabeth Stower 💍 1889/1951	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 18	Wanganui Wanganui	6 days 18 yrs	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	89/2031	Samuel Stower, father	31 August 1889	S.H. Noon, Registrar
33	2 September 1889	Archibald Rutherford Mary Turner	Archibald Sutherland Mary Turner 💍 1889/1937 Isiah Robinson Mary Turner 💍 1889/2771	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	39 22	No. 1 [illegible] Wanganui	2 yrs 5 yrs	In the residence of Mr. John Turner, English St., Wanganui	89/2018		2 September 1889	James Treadwell, Presbyterian
34	9 September 1889	Thomas Lowe Balia Bass		Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper	41 33	Wpotonga Wanganui	2 yrs 33 yrs	In the residence of John Bass, Wilson Street, Wanganui	89/2029		9 September 1889	James Treadwell, Presbyterian

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).