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 1292

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1889

Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
17 December 1889	Walter Peck Theresa Isabel Hay	Walter Peck Theresa Mabel Hay 💍 1889/3647	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	31 21	Gisborne Wellington	months months	Registrar's office, Gisborne	89/2806	17 December 1889	Registrar at Gisborne
18 December 1889	Robert Russell Mary Ingram Hamler	Robert Rupell Mary Ingram Hamilton 💍 1889/2863	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	27 27	Wellington Wellington	3 days 2 days	House of Captn. Johnson, Willis Street	89/2920	18 December 1889	Revd. J. Paterson
18 December 1889	John Randell Jane Ann Tocker	John Randell Jane Ann Tocker 💍 1889/2895	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger	25 26	Lower Hutt Lower Hutt	years years	House of Mr. Tocker, Lower Hutt	89/2929	18 December 1889	Revd. W. J. Watkin
18 December 1889	Albert Benjamin Card Jessie Sage	Albert Benjamin Caird Jessie Sage 💍 1889/2864	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	30 25	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Harrison, Majoribanks Street	89/2898	18 December 1889	Revd. W. Skinner
19 December 1889	Frederick William Wallin Millicent Rowe	Frederick William Wallis Millicent Rowe 💍 1889/2913	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	23 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	Primitive Methodist Church, Webb Street	89/2950	19 December 1889	Revd. C. H. Laws
20 December 1889	William Jones Hannah Maria Homer	William Jones Hannah Maria Homer 💍 1889/2907	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	31 24	Wellington Wellington	years 9 months	House of Bridegroom, Tinakori Road	89/2948	20 December 1889	Revd. J. K. Elliott
20 December 1889	Johan Emil Lindberg Isabella Allan Donnelly	Johan Ernie Lindberg Isabella Allan Donnelly 💍 1889/2858	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	31 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Donnelly, Cuba Street	89/2897	20 December 1889	Revd. R. Coffey
20 December 1889	Richard Lethbridge Topp Mary Strong	Richard Bethridge Topp Mary Strong 💍 1889/2851	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	21 21	Wellington Wellington	years 8 months	St. Mark's Church	89/2908	20 December 1889	Revd. William Lea
21 December 1889	Albert John David Emma Boyce	Albert John Daniel Emma Boyce 💍 1889/2912	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	23 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Daniel, Vogel Street	89/2949	20 December 1889	W. J. Wyatt
21 December 1889	William Shaw Minnie Trudgen	William Shaw Minnie Trudgeon 💍 1889/2939 William Shaw Janet Murray 💍 1890/524	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 21	Wellington Wellington	6 months 18 months	Registrar's office, Wellington	89/2976	21 December 1889	Revd. J. K. Elliott
21 December 1889	John Robert Both Jennie Lawson	John Joseph Colbert Annie Lawson 💍 1889/3593	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 23	Wellington Wellington	5 months 5 months	House of Mr. Magelton, Tasman Street	89/2911	21 December 1889	Revd. R. Coffey
23 December 1889	Frederick Munson Elizabeth Pickering	Frederick Manson Elizabeth Pickering 💍 1889/2852	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 30	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Mark's Church	89/2909	23 December 1889	Revd. R. Coffey

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).