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 1293

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
355	23 December 1889	Benjamin Archer Wilhelmina Hume	Benjamin Archer Wilhelmina Munro Sylva 💍 1889/2940	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	24 21	Wellington Wellington	years	Registrars Office	89/2977		23 December 1889	W. T. Wyatt
356	23 December 1889	William Heads Annie Lewis	William Meads Annie Lewis 💍 1889/2941	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars Office	89/2978		23 December 1889	W. T. Wyatt
357	24 December 1889	Cogan Falkland Mary Clark Patrick	Caspar Falkland Mary Clark Hawick 💍 1889/2943	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	41 26	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars Office	89/2980		24 December 1889	W. T. Wyatt
358	24 December 1889	Hannah Hawke Rebecca Thear		Bachelor Spinster	Fireman	26 19	Wellington Wellington	years years	Home of Mr. Parr, Frederick Street	89/2895	Rebecca Badenhead, mother	24 December 1889	Rev. J. K. Elliott
359	24 December 1889	William Lowry Mary Jane Taylor	William Lowry Mary Jane Taylor 💍 1889/2828 William Parker Margaret Taylor 💍 1889/3327	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	25 22	Petone Pahautanui	years years	Episcopalian Church, Pahautanui	89/2884		24 December 1889	Rev. J. M. Davenish
360	20 December 1889	John Bourke Elizabeth Ann Worrall	John Baurke Elizabeth Ann Woodman 💍 1889/3488 John Pearce Elizabeth Ann Coles 💍 1889/2387	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 22	Jawa Flat Lukaipo	14 days years	Roman Catholic Church, Lower Hutt	89/2538		20 December 1889	Rev. John Lane
361	20 December 1889	William Hugh Lizzie Drewett	William Wright Lizzie Irwin 💍 1890/410	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	31 27	Wellington Wellington	years 1 month	Presbyterian Manse, Dixon Street	89/2975		20 December 1889	Rev. G. Paterson
362	20 December 1889	John Hearfield Elizabeth Wright	John Hearfield Elizabeth Wright 💍 1889/2920	Bachelor Spinster	Driver	22 20	Wellington Lower Hutt	years years	Registrars Office, Wellington	89/2981	Jesse Wright, father	20 December 1889	W. T. Wyatt
363	20 December 1889	James Backin Jessie Morrison	James Mackie Jessie Morrison 💍 1889/2921	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	35 38	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars Office, Wellington	89/2982		20 December 1889	W. T. Wyatt
364	20 December 1889	Walter Charles Love Agnes Emily Bringer	Walter Charles Lowe Agnes Emily Brunger 💍 1890/326	Bachelor Spinster	Dairyman	20 17	Kenui Nakara	year year	St. Marys Church, Kenui	90/21	No relation in Colony, James Bringer, father	13 January 1890	Rev. A. Dasent
365	20 December 1889	Charles Reid Constance Mary Peterson	Charles Reid Constance Mary Peterson 💍 1889/2925	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 25	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	Registrars Office, Wellington	89/2986		20 December 1889	W. T. Wyatt
366	20 December 1889	Maurice Roche Kate Gillon	Maurice Roche Kate Gillon 💍 1890/346	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 26	Wellington Wellington	3 months 4 months	St. Mary of the Angels	89/257		20 December 1889	Rev. P. Kerrigan

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).