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 1291

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 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
331	11 December 1889	Joseph Hollie Isabella Jane Dean	Joseph Hollis Isabella Jane Dixon 💍 1889/2893	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	22 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Pauls Church	89/2927		12 December 1889	Revd. John Still
332	12 December 1889	William Stephen Agnes Ann Simmonds	William Nepham Agnes Ann Simmons 💍 1889/2930	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 21	Porirua Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	89/2973		14 December 1889	W. T. Wyatt
333	12 December 1889	William James Lankham Lilla Augusta Garnett	William James Lanham Lillian Augusta Garnett 💍 1889/2937	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	89/2974		14 December 1889	W. T. Wyatt
334	13 December 1889	Patrick Meingan Mary Jane Thompson	Patrick Munguvin Mary Jane Thomson 💍 1889/2833	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 20	Porirua Porirua	years years	Home of Bridegroom	89/2890	George Thompson, Father	16 December 1889	Revd. John Nixon
335	13 December 1889	John Hawkins Margaret Sheppard	John Hawkins Margaret Sheppard 💍 1889/2885	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 24	Wellington Wellington	7 months 3 weeks	Home of Bridegroom, Franklyn Avenue	89/2943		16 December 1889	Revd. Joseph Berry
336	13 December 1889	Lew Carey Woolcroft Lilian Euphemia Grand		Bachelor Spinster	Journalist	24 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Marks Church	89/2907		16 December 1889	Revd. R. Coffey
337	16 December 1889	George Penn Stanley Elizabeth Sophia Fletcher	George Pain Manley Elizabeth Sophia Tretheway 💍 1889/2847	Bachelor Spinster	Shipwright	33 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	Home of father of Bride, Vivian Street	89/2896		16 December 1889	Revd. J. K. Ellick
338	16 December 1889	John Harcourt Farquhar Emma Reynolds	John Harcourt Farquhar Emma Reynolds 💍 1889/2942	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	25 30	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	89/2979		17 December 1889	W. T. Wyatt
339	16 December 1889	Henry Street Jenkins Maria Elizabeth Hook	Henry Stovel Jenkins Maria Elizabeth Hook 💍 1889/2871	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	24 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	In Hook, Courtenay Place	89/2921		17 December 1889	Revd. J. Paterson
340	16 December 1889	Alfred William Stephenson Helen Emily Dorothy	Alfred William Stephenson Helen Emily Crofty 💍 1889/2938	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	31 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	89/2975		17 December 1889	W. T. Wyatt
341	17 December 1889	Charles Bray Wilhelmina Strang Look	Charles Bray Wilhelmina Mary Cook 💍 1889/2853	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	25 25	Wellington Makara	3 days 3 months	Episcopalian Church	89/2910		17 December 1889	Revd. A. E. Dasent
342	17 December 1889	John Ferdinand Calcinai Elizabeth Harris	James Cameron Elizabeth Harris 💍 1889/989	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	24 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Peters Church	89/2939		17 December 1889	Revd. W. C. Waters

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).