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 529

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
169	25 June 1889	John Thomas Webb Louisa Evangeline Buckworth	John Thomas Webster Louisa Evangeline Butterworth 💍 1889/1442	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	28 27	Wellington Wellington	6 months	St. Marks Church	89/1165		25 June 1889	Rev. R. Coffey
170	25 June 1889	John Liddell Kate Goodbehere	John Liddle Kate Goodbehere 💍 1889/1441	Widower Spinster	Settler	54 40	Wellington Wellington	1 week	St. Marks Church	89/1164		25 June 1889	Rev. R. Coffey
171	26 June 1889	Alfred Arthur Landall Elizabeth Jane Rolston	Alfred Arthur Landall Elizabeth Jane Rolston 💍 1889/2059	Bachelor Spinster	Mercantile Assistant	25 19	Johnsonville Johnsonville	5 months years	St. Johns Church	89/2090	Jane Salmon, mother	26 June 1889	Venble Archdeacon Samuel
172	27 June 1889	George Jennings Pethick Mary Jane Chapman	George Jennings Petherick May Jane Chapman 💍 1889/2651	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	27 22	Wellington Johnsonville	years years	House of Bridegroom, Adelaide Road	89/2641		27 June 1889	Rev. John Nixon
173	27 June 1889	Sydney Smith Mary Elizabeth Brooker	Sydney Smith Mary Elizabeth Brooker 💍 1889/2100	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 20	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars Office, Wellington	89/2109	James Brooker, father	27 June 1889	W. D. Wyatt
174	27 June 1889	Frederick Couchman Jane Tilner	Frederick Couchman Jane Kilner 💍 1889/2060	Bachelor Spinster	Steward	31 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	Wesley Church, Taranaki Street	89/2091		27 June 1889	Rev. Joseph Berry
175	28 June 1889	James McCormack Margaret Lanigan	James McCormack Margaret Lanigan 💍 1889/1449	Bachelor Spinster	Warder	26 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Marys Cathedral	89/1149		28 June 1889	Rev. J. McNamara
176	29 June 1889	Rodger Slattery Mary Miscall	Rodger Slattery May Miscall 💍 1889/2072	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	30 23	Wellington Wellington	1 week 2 weeks	Roman Catholic Church, Lower Hutt	89/2103		29 June 1889	Rev. John Lane
177	29 June 1889	Henry Steen Sarah Taylor	Henry Steen Sarah Taylor 💍 1889/1151	Widower Widow	Engineer	52 62	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Johns Church, Woolcombe Street	89/1115		29 June 1889	Rev. J. Paterson
178	29 June 1889	Joseph Thomas Weston Ellen Skelton	Joseph Thomas Weston Ellen Dalton 💍 1889/2101	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 19	Wellington Wellington	1 month years	Registrars Office, Wellington	89/2110	No relative in Colony	13 July 1889	W. D. 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).