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 527

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
145	27 May 1889	Robert Reid Margaret Gronow	Robert Reid Margaret Gronow 💍 1889/1232	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	23 18	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	89/1192	William Guymon, Guardian	27 May 1889	W. I. Wyatt
146	28 May 1889	John Bethridge Tipp Anna Mahica Blyth		Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	24 20	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Marks Church	89/1161	Oscar Beyer, Father	28 May 1889	Revd R. Coffey
147	30 May 1889	William Frederick Sindair Margaret Blair Thompson	William Frederick Sinclair Margaret Blair Thompson 💍 1889/1235	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 29	Wellington Wellington	4 days 4 days	Registrars office Wellington	89/1193		30 May 1889	W. I. Wyatt
148	31 May 1889	James Morrison Mary Gertrude Linton	James Morrison Mary Gertrude Linton 💍 1889/1230	Bachelor Spinster	Superintendent of Asylum	29 25	Wellington Asylum	years Asylum	House of Mr. View Asylum	89/1175		31 May 1889	Revd J. K. Elliott
149	3 June 1889	Alfred John Black Emeline King Henderson	Alfred John Slack Emmeline Lucy Henderson 💍 1889/1229	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 20	Wellington Wellington	15 months years	House of Mr. Henderson, Thompson Street	89/1174		3 June 1889	Revd J. K. Elliott
150	3 June 1889	James Phelan Christina Hogan	James Phelan Christiana Hagan 💍 1889/1443	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman	28 22	Lower Hutt Upper Hutt	4 months years	Roman Catholic Church, Upper Hutt	89/1166		3 June 1889	Revd John Lane
151	4 June 1889	John Anderson Hayes Julia Anne Luke	John Anderson Moyes Julia Anne Luke 💍 1889/2628	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	30 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	Primitive Methodist Church, Webb Street	89/1167		4 June 1889	Revd C. E. Ward
152	4 June 1889	William Henry Green Edith Gemmell	William Henry Green Junior Edith Osmond 💍 1889/1208	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	29 25	Wellington Wellington	years 1 year	House of Mr. Carr, Broadway Terrace	89/1168		4 June 1889	Revd C. E. Ward
153	5 June 1889	William Robinson Annie Collins	William Robinson Annie Collins 💍 1889/1237	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	33 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	89/1195		5 June 1889	W. I. Wyatt
154	5 June 1889	George Hoggan Smith Ann Naylor	George Hoggan Smith Ann Naylor 💍 1889/1236	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	31 30	Wellington Wellington	8 weeks 3 weeks	Registrars office Wellington	89/1194		5 June 1889	W. I. Wyatt
155	5 June 1889	Robert Howe Eliza James	Robert Howe Eliza James 💍 1889/1238	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	42 28	Wellington Wellington	8 months years	Registrars office Wellington	89/1196		5 June 1889	W. I. Wyatt
156	6 June 1889	Robert Henry Holmes Ellen Beatrice Williams	Robert Henry Holmes Selena Beatrice Williams 💍 1889/1189	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	25 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Dugdale, Owen Street	89/1131		6 June 1889	Revd W. Shirer

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).