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 1337

District of Wairau 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
24	18 October 1889	Albert Victor King Alice Elizabeth Homes	Albert Victor King Alice Elizabeth Homes 💍 1889/2994	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	30 26	Blenheim Blenheim	6 years 26 years	The House of Mr Daniel Draper Blenheim	89/3055		18 October 1889	Rev I. S. Grace
25	18 October 1889	Alexander Weaver Liley Warmouth	Alexander Wearer Lilly Warmouth 💍 1889/3013	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	21 19	Kaituna Onamalutu	2 years 13 years	The House of Mr Benjamin Warmouth Onamalutu	89/3051	Benjamin Warmouth Father	18 October 1889	Rev. Harold E Ensor
26	21 October 1889	Joseph Law Isabella Greig	Joseph Law Isabella Greig 💍 1889/2995	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	21 20	Blenheim Lower Wairau Opawa	21 years 21 years	The house of Mr James H Greig Lower Wairau Opawa	89/3056	James Henry Greig father	21 October 1889	Rev W. O Robb
27	16 December 1889	Harry Pond Louisa Ellen Webb	Harry Pond Louisa Ellen Webb 💍 1889/2996	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Dressmaker	25 27	Blenheim Blenheim	5 years 11 months	The house of Mr James Hay. Pucy Street Blenheim	89/3057		16 December 1889	Rev W. O Robb
28	18 December 1889	Thomas Alderton Lily Louisa Lines	Thomas Alderton Lily Louisa Lines 💍 1889/3015	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 21	Blenheim Blenheim	3 years 3 months	at the office of the Registrar of Marriages Blenheim	89/3053		18 December 1889	Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim
29	28 December 1889	Sidney Joseph Watson Catharine Jane Hammond	Sidney Joseph Watson Catherine Jane Hammond 💍 1889/3016	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Housekeeper	48 22	Renwick Town Renwick Town	28 years about 5 years	the office of the Registrar of Marriage Blenheim	89/3054		28 December 1889	Registrar of Marriages Blenheim
30	30 December 1889	Alfred Henry Barnes Agnes Priscilla McIsaac	Alfred Henry Barnes Agnes Priscilla McIsaac 💍 1890/241	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 20	Renwick old Road Upper Wairau	24 years 20 years	the Presbyterian Church Renwicktown	89/392		30 December 1889	Rev. W O Robb
31	31 December 1889	James Robinson Mary Jane Aroa	James Robinson Mary Jane Aroa 💍 1889/3014	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	41 22	Kaituna Kaituna	13 months 22 years	the House of Mr James Aroa Kaituna Valley	89/3052		31 December 1889	Rev. H. E. Ensor

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).