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 136

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 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
61	4 March 1889	Ulysses Francis Murphy Margaret Madeline Baker	Wyssas Francis Murphy Margaret Madeline Bulter 💍 1889/540	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	40 30	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	St. Mary's Cathedral	89/295		4 March 1889	Rev. J. McNamara
62	4 March 1889	James Robert Johnson Annabella Bruce	James Robert Johnson Annabella Bruce 💍 1889/915	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	37 24	Wellington Wellington	3 years 3 days	House of The Revd. G. S. Ogg	89/248		4 March 1889	Revd. G. S. Ogg
63	4 March 1889	James William Jeffery Elijah and Jane		Bachelor Spinster	Steward	25 18	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	89/323	George Edward Jacob, Father	4 March 1889	W. J. Wyatt
64	4 March 1889	George Peter Poole Emma Wright	George Peter Doile Emma Wright 💍 1889/217	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 23	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	House of Mr. Morris, Hanson Street	89/272		4 March 1889	Revd. W. Steiner
65	4 March 1889	Michael Reaican Margaret Tobin	Michael Redisan Margaret Tobin 💍 1889/541	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	31 27	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	St. Mary's Cathedral	89/296		4 March 1889	Revd. J. McNamara
66	6 March 1889	Arthur Langdon Parsons Lily Laurence	Arthur Langdow Parsons Lily Lawrances 💍 1889/3552	Bachelor Spinster	Insurance Officer	24 23	Lower Hutt Lower Hutt	3 days 3 months	House of Mr. G. N. Treadwell, Lower Hutt	89/249		6 March 1889	Revd. G. S. Ogg
67	7 March 1889	William John Hitchcock Emma Martin	William John Hitchcock Stevens Emma Martin 💍 1889/233	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	24 26	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	House of Mr. Martin, Manners Street	89/265		7 March 1889	Revd. J. K. Elliott
68	9 March 1889	Nicholas Wynn Emily Harriet Penfold	Nicholas Wyne Emily Harriett Penfold 💍 1889/539	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	29 16	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Wesley Church, Taranaki Street	89/286	Annie Nicholls, Mother	9 March 1889	Revd. William Lee
69	12 March 1889	John Gillard Annie Turgley	John Gillard Annie Quigley 💍 1889/548	Bachelor Spinster	Coachman	32 22	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	St. Paul's Cathedral	89/303		12 March 1889	Revd. John Still
70	13 March 1889	William John Grey Ada Evelyn Watts	William John Guy Ada Evelyn Mills 💍 1889/549	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	43 22	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	St. Paul's Cathedral	89/304		13 March 1889	Revd. W. E. Lush
71	13 March 1889	Thomas Rayner Louisa Gritton Pethwick	Thomas Rayner Lavinia Grilton Petherick 💍 1889/550	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	41 31	Wellington Wellington	1 week 4 years	House of Mr. Pethwick, Abel Smith Street	89/287		13 March 1889	Revd. William Lee
72	14 March 1889	Alfred Thompson Pratt Annie Jones	Alfred Thompson Peat Annie Jones 💍 1889/293 Alfred John Prior Fanny Jones 💍 1889/2259	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	25 23	Wellington Wellington	1 year 4 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	89/324		14 March 1889	W. J. Wyatt

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).