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 912

District of Wellington 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
227	22 August 1889	Michael Thomas Neill Ann Henrietta Neill		Bachelor Spinster	Commission Agent	38 26	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Mary of the Angels	89/2065		22 August 1889	Rev. P. Kerrigan
228	22 August 1889	Joshua Ellerenshaw Edith King Walkley	Joshua Ollersenshaw Edith King Walkling 💍 1889/2090	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	30 23	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	89/2122		22 August 1889	W. T. Wyatt
229	22 August 1889	Charles Jefries Wassall Annie Josephine Wassall	Charles Jeffers Wassell Annie Josephine Lavin 💍 1889/2007	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	28 24	Wellington Wellington	3 months 3 months	St. Mary of the Angels	89/2066		22 August 1889	Rev. P. Kerrigan
230	24 August 1889	Frederic Everest Florence Emma Webb	Frederic Everett Florence Emma Webb 💍 1889/2091	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	26 21	Wellington Wellington	6 weeks 7 months	Registrars office Wellington	89/2123		24 August 1889	W. T. Wyatt
231	26 August 1889	Arthur John Sulman Emily Leonard	Arthur John Tubman Emily Leonard 💍 1889/2092	Bachelor Spinster	Driver	27 24	Wellington Wellington	years 1 year	Registrars office Wellington	89/2124		26 August 1889	W. T. Wyatt
232	26 August 1889	George Harry Staniford Jeanettica Martha Halcrow	George Harry Stanford Jeanetta Marta Halcrow 💍 1889/2062	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	27 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Bride Cuba Street	89/2093		26 August 1889	Revd. C. Penney
233	27 August 1889	George Southee Emma Hedges	George Southee Emma Hedges 💍 1889/2070	Bachelor Spinster	Labour	22 18	Upper Hutt Newtown Avenue	years years	House of William Hedges his Salvigny Newtown Avenue	89/2101	William Hedges, Father	27 August 1889	Revd. Wm. Shine
234	31 August 1889	George Field Mary Ann Sumner	George Field Mary Ann Turner 💍 1889/2093	Bachelor Spinster	Labour	34 19	Charin Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	89/2125	James Sumner, Father	31 August 1889	W. T. Wyatt
235	2 September 1889	Albert Norman Margaret Farrar	Albert Norman Margaret Farrar 💍 1889/2095	Bachelor Spinster	Labour	27 21	Wellington Wellington	6 months 6 months	Registrars office Wellington	89/2126		2 September 1889	W. T. Wyatt
236	3 September 1889	Edmund Smith Mary Cannell	Edmund Smith Mary Lockhart MacConnell 💍 1889/2096	Widower Spinster	Stevedore	55 32	Wellington Wellington	1 Week 1 Week	Registrars office Wellington	89/2127		3 September 1889	W. T. Wyatt
237	4 September 1889	James Paul Margaret Swineard	James Paul Margaret Irvine Tait 💍 1889/3532	Bachelor Spinster	General Dealer	23 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Andrews Church	89/3607		4 September 1889	Rev. C. I. Ogg
238	10 September 1889	William Lemock Mary Evelyn Rogerson	William Dimock Mary Evelyn Rogerson 💍 1889/2063	Bachelor Spinster	Bacon Curer	26 23	Kawarau Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Sameard, Turnbull Street	89/2094		10 September 1889	Revd. C. Penney

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).