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 1325

District of Hastings 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
159	14 October 1889	Henry Ireland Mary Elizabeth Scott	Henry Ireland Mary Elizabeth Scott 💍 1889/2979	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	27 23	Hastings HBay Hastings HBay	1 week 10 years	Church of England Hastings	89/3022		14 October 1889	Rev. I Townsend Episcopalian Minister
160	2 November 1889	Henry de Lailey Harding Edith Lizzie Fram	Henry De Saily Hardinge Edith Lizzie Fraser 💍 1889/2986	Bachelor Spinster	Station hand Domestic	22 21	Hastings HBay Hastings HBay	3 days 3 days	Registrar Office Hastings	89/3023		2 November 1889	Registrar
161	4 November 1889	James McCausland Marion Thomas Nelson	James McCausland Marion Thomson Nelson 💍 1889/2990	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	28 21	Hastings HBay Hastings HBay	4 years 3 years	Presbyterian Church Hastings	89/3027		4 November 1889	Rev. R Fraser Presbyterian Minister
162	4 November 1889	John Connelly Kate Hennessy	John Connelly Kate Hennessy 💍 1889/2987	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	29 30	Hastings HBay Hastings HBay	10 years 3 years	Roman Catholic Church Hastings	89/3024		4 November 1889	Rev. P Smith Roman Catholic Minister
163	26 November 1889	Edward Charles Oldfield Mary Brandon	Edward Charles Albert Tolley Mary Brandon 💍 1889/2988	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic	24 19	Hastings HBay Hastings HBay	4 years 10 years	Church of England Havelock	89/3025	Michael Brandon Father	26 November 1889	Rev. H W H Hill Episcopalian Minister
164	27 December 1889	Alexander Ramsay Mackay Helen Inglis Fraser	Alexander Randolph MacKay Helen Inglis Crarer 💍 1889/2991	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor Domestic	40 23	Hastings HBay Hastings HBay	3 months 3 months	Residence of A Mackay Havelock	89/3028		27 December 1889	Rev. R Fraser Presbyterian Minister

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).