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 1385

District of Rangiora 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
586	4 October 1889	John Raster Isabella Chapman	John Baxter Isabella Chapman 💍 1889/3617	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer not any	30 yrs 21 yrs	Rangiora Rangiora	4 days 4 days	Office of Registrar	89/3142		4 October 1889	A. H. Cunningham, Registrar
587	5 October 1889	William McRae Agnes Wallace	James Allan McRae Agnes Wallace 💍 1889/3128	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	28 yrs 29 yrs	Rangiora Rangiora	3 Weeks 14 Months	Office of Registrar	89/3143		5 October 1889	A. H. Cunningham, Registrar
588	15 October 1889	Frederick Fawcett Maud Ann Cave		Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner not any	49 yrs 31 yrs	Rangiora Rangiora	3 days 3 days	Office of Registrar	89/3144		15 October 1889	A. H. Cunningham, Registrar
589	21 October 1889	Walter Noble Laura Rich		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	19 yrs 18 yrs	Rangiora Rangiora	19 yrs 6 months	Dwelling House of Thomas Noble	89/3141	Thos. Noble, Father; Caroline Rich, Mother	22 October 1889	Revd. W. E. Gillam
590	22 October 1889	William Swarbrick Mary Ann Campbell	William Swords Mary Ann Campbell 💍 1889/3119	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer not any	29 yrs 24 yrs	Fernside Rangiora Rangiora	2 yrs 2 yrs	R. C. Church	89/3134		22 October 1889	Revd. H. O. Connor
591	26 October 1889	Alfred Peters Barbara Hodgson		Bachelor Spinster	Flax Dresser not any	21 yrs 23 yrs	Rangiora Rangiora	10 yrs 4 yrs	Office of Registrar	89/3140		26 October 1889	A. H. Cunningham, Registrar
592	26 October 1889	Albert Hand Ellen Marshall	Albert Christian Franz Busing Ellen Marshall 💍 1889/3124	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic Servant	25 yrs 25 yrs	Rangiora Rangiora	8 years 3 days	Dwelling House of Albert E. F. Hand	89/3139		26 October 1889	Revd. Alfred Peters
593	3 November 1889	Isaac Rich Robert Hodgson		Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker not any	26 yrs 27 yrs	Cust Woodend Rangiora	26 years 15 years	Wesleyan Church Woodend	89/3140		3 November 1889	Revd. Daniel I. Murray
594	4 November 1889	Robert Taylor Sarah Turner	Robert Miller Taylor Sarah Ann Turner 💍 1889/3121	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer not any	33 yrs 24 yrs	Fernside Rangiora Fernside	2 years 5 yrs	Presbyterian Ch. Rangiora	89/3136		4 November 1889	Revd. James Smellie
595	8 November 1889	James Major Sarah Smith	James Major Sarah Smith 💍 1889/3066 James McNally Susannah Smith 💍 1889/2786 James Walker Agnes Smith 💍 1890/612	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer not any	35 yrs 25 yrs	Fernside Rangiora Fernside	12 yrs 15 yrs	Office of Registrar	89/3146		8 November 1889	A. H. Cunningham, Registrar
596	12 November 1889	Robert Fleming Martha Trappitt	Robert Fleming Amelia Amy Zuppicich 💍 1889/3077	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer not any	23 yrs 20 yrs	Sefton Rangiora Sefton Rangiora	18 months 3 days	Office of Registrar	89/3147	Linton Trappitt, Father, Wood End	13 November 1889	A. H. Cunningham, Registrar

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).