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 523

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 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
97	10 April 1889	Thomas Forsyth Grace Brown	Thomas Forsyth Grace Brown 💍 1889/1226	Bachelor Widow	Steward	32 34	Wellington Wellington	years years	Home of Mrs Read, Roxburgh Street	89/1171		10 April 1889	Rev J. K. Elliott
98	11 April 1889	John Mitchell Selina Susannah Reeson	John Mitchell Selina Susannah Rogerson 💍 1889/1185	Bachelor Spinster	Auctioneer	25 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	Wesley Church, Taranaki Street	89/1027		11 April 1889	Rev Joseph Berry
99	11 April 1889	Charles Bowler Faith Evelyn Edey		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	31 21	Wellington Kaiwara	14 days 3 days	House of Mr T. Hawkings, Kaiwara	89/1120		11 April 1889	Rev John Nixon
100	13 April 1889	Samuel Hast Caroline Esther Mitchell	Samuel Hart Caroline Esther Mitchell 💍 1889/1428	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	26 26	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	St Pauls Cathedral	89/1151		13 April 1889	Rev John Still
101	16 April 1889	John Henry Whitton Emma Jane Smith	John Henry Whitton Emma Jane Smith 💍 1889/1206	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	25 21	Lower Hutt Lower Hutt	years years	St James, Lower Hutt	89/1125		16 April 1889	Rev Joshua Jones
102	16 April 1889	Richard Stone Houghton Elizabeth Jane Worrigate	Richard Stone Haughton Elizabeth Jane Woodgate 💍 1889/1231	Bachelor Spinster	Manufacturing Chemist	27 29	Wellington Wellington	years 3 days	House of Bridegroom, Adelaide Road	89/1176		16 April 1889	Rev N. H. Driver
103	17 April 1889	Alfred Ernest Eames Frances Mary Garrett	Alfred Ernest Eames Frances Mary Garratt 💍 1889/1434	Bachelor Spinster	Pharmaceutical Chemist	22 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Marks Church	89/1158		17 April 1889	Rev R. Coffey
104	17 April 1889	John Pennain Fanny Bertha Karsten	John Permeein Fanny Bertha Karsten 💍 1889/1432	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	24 23	Wellington Wellington	years 3 days	St Marks Church	89/1156		17 April 1889	Rev R. Coffey
105	18 April 1889	John Crawford Frances Charlotte Richardson	John Crawford Frances Charlotte Featherstone 💍 1889/1214 John Crawford Ellen Palethorpe 💍 1889/1327	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	24 22	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	Registrars Office, Wellington	89/1182		18 April 1889	W. S. Wyatt
106	18 April 1889	William Stephen Judd Ellen Judd	William Stephen Judd Ellen Judd 💍 1889/1191	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	25 21	Wellington Lower Hutt	years years	House of Mr Cook, Lower Hutt	89/1133		18 April 1889	Rev W. J. Watkin
107	18 April 1889	Frank Quilin Annie Burka	Frank Quilice Annie Burke 💍 1889/1215	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	21 19	Wades Town Wellington	6 months years	Registrars Office	89/1183	James Burka, Father	18 April 1889	W. S. Wyatt
108	18 April 1889	David Margetts Marion Hearon	David Margetts Marion Kearon 💍 1889/1205	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 30	Wellington Wellington	3 days 6 months	Church of Christ, Dixon Street	89/1124		18 April 1889	Mr Edward Lewis

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).