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 1289

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1889 Registrar William Thomas Wyatt

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
307	14 November 1889	John Ewent Grace Brancian	John Ewart Grace Brandon 💍 1889/2862	Bachelor Spinster	M.D.	31 22	Wellington Wellington	7 months years	Home of Willis Strug	89/2919		14 November 1889	Revd. J. Paterson
308	15 November 1889	James Orr Mary Ann Fitzgerald	James Orr Mary Ann Fitzgerald 💍 1889/2906	Widower Spinster	Licensed Victualler	57 27	Wellington Wellington	4 days 2 months	Registrars office Wellington	89/2966		15 November 1889	Mr. W. T. Wyatt
309	18 November 1889	William John Harry Laura Tamplin	William John Harvey Louisa Tamplin 💍 1889/2838	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	27 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	Home of Mrs Tamplin Rintoul St	89/2894		18 November 1889	Mr. Edward Lewis
310	19 November 1889	Abraham David Dowley Charlotte Ellen Smith	Abraham David Dowsett Charlotte Ellen Smith 💍 1889/2866	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith	22 23	Petone Petone	years years	St. Pauls Church Petone	89/2900		19 November 1889	Revd. Joshua Jones
311	25 November 1889	Michael Romey Annie Desmond	Michael Rooney Annie Desmond 💍 1889/2832	Bachelor Spinster	Foreman	28 21	Wellington Wellington	5 months 12 months	St. Marys Cathedral	89/2888		25 November 1889	Very Revd. J. McNamara
312	25 November 1889	William Colston Miles Wilhelmina Bissing	William Colston Miles Wilhelmina Biising 💍 1889/2908	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	24 21	Wellington Wellington	11 months 3 months	Registrars office Wellington	89/2968		25 November 1889	Mr. W. T. Wyatt
313	25 November 1889	George Frost Sarah Cook	George Frost Sarah Cook 💍 1889/2896	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	Home of Mr Cook Leeds Street	89/2947		25 November 1889	Revd. C. H. Laws
314	25 November 1889	Alfred John Cottrell Paulina Emma Watson	Alfred John Cotterell Pauline Emma Margaret Watson 💍 1889/3534	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	31 29	Wellington Wellington	4 days years	Home of Mr Watson Cuba Street	89/3609		25 November 1889	Revd. C. S. Ogg
315	27 November 1889	William Nelson Florence Manson	William Nelson Florence Hanson 💍 1889/2909 William Nelson Esther Evans 💍 1890/749 William Nelson Amelia Nurse 💍 1889/872	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	28 19	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	89/2969	Matilda Manson mother	27 November 1889	Mr. W. T. Wyatt
316	27 November 1889	Roger Collins Mary O'Crowd	Roger Collins Mary O'Dowd 💍 1889/3529	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	32 24	Wellington Wellington	1 week 1 year	St. Mary of the Angels	89/3604		27 November 1889	Revd. P. Kerrigan
317	2 December 1889	William Herbert Thomson Eliza Anna Wooding	William Herbert Thompson Eliza Anna Wooding 💍 1889/2861	Bachelor Spinster	Porter	23 14	Wellington Wellington	6 months 4 days	St. Johns Church	89/2918	Anna Elizabeth Paterson mother	2 December 1889	Revd. J. Paterson
318	3 December 1889	Arthur Albert De Laney Mary Christina Thomson	Arthur Albert De Laney Mary Christina Thomson 💍 1889/2910	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	22 19	Wellington Wellington	11 months years	Registrars office Wellington	89/2970	William Thomas Thomson Father	3 December 1889	Mr. W. T. Wyatt

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).