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 1045

District of Temuka 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
12	2 July 1889	John Hallen Hester Mary Jack	John Hullen Matilda Mary Jack 💍 1889/2402	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 29	Waitohi Timaru	22 years 2 years	Registrars Office Timaru	89/2416	2 July 1889	Registrar Marriages Timaru
13	17 July 1889	Horace Brogden Adelaide Brogden		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 21	Temuka Temuka	5 years 5 years	Residence of William Brogden Leys Farm	89/2404	17 July 1889	Rev TA Hamilton Church of England
14	19 July 1889	John Bennett Jane Marshall	John Bennett Jane Marshall 💍 1889/2395	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 21	Temuka Temuka	6 weeks 6 years	Presbyterian Church	89/2401	19 July 1889	Rev John Dickson Presbyterian
15	22 July 1889	Linton Langridge Naomi Picott		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 24	Temuka Temuka	20 years 10 years	St Saviours Church	89/2405	22 July 1889	Rev TA Hamilton Church of England
16	1 August 1889	William Coltman Mary Jane Russell	William Coltman Mary Jane Russell 💍 1889/2406	Widower Spinster	Watchmaker	26 22	Temuka Temuka	3 days 3 years	Residence of Russell	89/2402	1 August 1889	Rev John Dickson Presbyterian
17	6 August 1889	William Cross Harriet Beabour	William Cross Mary Caroline Benbow 💍 1889/2413	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 23	Temuka Temuka	5 years 20 years	Residence of Beabour	89/2403	6 August 1889	Rev R D Bunn Wesleyan
18	19 August 1889	Timothy Falsey Mary Ahearn	Timothy Falvey Mary Ahearn 💍 1889/2418	Widower Widow	Farmer	47 32	Temuka Temuka	11 years 6 years	St Josephs Church	89/2408	19 August 1889	Rev L Faurel Roman Catholic
19	1 September 1889	John Nelson Selina Stumbles	John Nelson Selina Stumbles 💍 1889/2417	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 24	Temuka Temuka	3 days 3 days	Registrars Office	89/2407	1 September 1889	Registrar Marriages Temuka
20	25 September 1889	Joseph Lanham Flint Coralie Maria Beatson	Joseph Lanham Flint Cora Emily Maria Beatson 💍 1889/2416	Bachelor Spinster	Banker	35 22	Temuka Winchester	3 years 2 years	Residence of W Ensor	89/2406	25 September 1889	Rev TA Hamilton Church of England

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).