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 1025

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 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
318	10 September 1889	Arthur Lloyd Probus Selina Lucrezia Philadelphia Old	Arthur Lloyd Rohos Selina Lucrezia Philadelphia Old 💍 1889/2355	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger Governess	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	8 months 8 months	Registrar's Office	89/2367		10 September 1889	Registrar J. W. Marriner
319	10 September 1889	Arthur Stephen Ada Amelia Read	Arthur Stephen Joseph Jones Ada Amelia Read 💍 1889/2305	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer Laundress	22 23	Christchurch Linwood	17 years 5 years	House of W. Frederick Read, Parish Street	89/2317	Joseph Jones	10 September 1889	Rev. J. H. Cope
320	10 September 1889	William David Robinson Jessie Louisa Calder	William David Robinson Jessie Louisa Calder 💍 1889/2301	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Governess	39 29	Christchurch Christchurch	12 years 11 months	Presbyterian Church, North Belt	89/2289		10 September 1889	Rev. R. S. Westby, Minister
321	11 September 1889	Robert Law Annie Kempthorne	Robert Law Annie Kempthorne 💍 1889/2356	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 5 years	Registrar's Office	89/2368	William H. Kempthorne, Father	11 September 1889	Registrar J. M. Verrall
322	11 September 1889	James George Dains Elizabeth Green	James George Davis Elizabeth Green 💍 1889/2310	Widower Spinster	Accountant	35 34	Christchurch Avonside	12 years 6 years	Holy Trinity Church	89/2322		11 September 1889	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Church of Grey
323	11 September 1889	Edward Jeffrey Alice Susannah Tibbs	Edward Jeffrey Alice Susannah Tibbs 💍 1889/2344	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	29 20	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years 15 years	St. Michael's Church	89/2338	George Tibbs, Father	11 September 1889	Rev. W. H. Hay, Church
324	14 September 1889	Frederick James Trangrove Ethel Edith Yates	Frederick James Trengrove Ethel Edith Yates 💍 1889/2688	Bachelor Spinster	Cabman	21 20	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years 20 years	Seamen's Church	89/2654	Robert Yates, Father	14 September 1889	Rev. C. J. Merton, Church of Seamen
325	14 September 1889	William Henry Hes Alberta Agnes Goodwin	William Henry Iles Alberta Agnes Goodwin 💍 1889/2293	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 24 years	St. Andrew's Manse, Farn Street	89/2304		14 September 1889	Rev. G. Webb, Presbyterian

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).