Intentions to Marry, 1890

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840402, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 23 2025

Page 135

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1890

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
1	2 January 1890	Thomas George Hour Ann Elizabeth Hoare	Thomas George Hoar Ann Elizabeth Hoane 💍 1890/345	Bachelor Spinster	Monumental Mason	21 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Hoare, Karori, McLean Street	90/256		2 January 1890	Rev. C. Edward
2	2 January 1890	Albert Dring Alice Batchelor	Albert Doring Alice Batchelor 💍 1890/412	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	27 22	Wellington Wellington	years 14 days	House of Mr. Lawson, Lorne Street	90/285		2 January 1890	Rev. W. Lee
3	3 January 1890	David Shotter Mary Louisa Hockley	David Shotter Mary Louisa Hockley 💍 1890/426	Bachelor Spinster	Bushfaller	23 21	Makara Karori	years years	Registrars office, Wellington	90/298		3 January 1890	W. T. Wyatt
4	3 January 1890	Charles Newman Smith Lydia Laurance	Charles Newman Smith Lydia Lawrence 💍 1890/425	Bachelor Spinster	Traveller	38 27	Wellington Wellington	3 weeks years	Registrars office, Wellington	90/297		3 January 1890	W. T. Wyatt
5	7 January 1890	Alfred Gerard Mary Violet Rose Kelly	Alfred Gerrard May Violet Rose Kelly 💍 1890/3664	Bachelor Widow	Gentleman	27 28	Wellington Wellington	1 week 1 week	Registrars office, Wellington	90/299		7 January 1890	W. T. Wyatt
6	7 January 1890	Anthony Broadbent Catherina Eddie	Anthony Broadbent Catherine Eddie 💍 1890/422	Widower Widow	Warehouseman	65 39	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Bridegroom, Pirie Street	90/294		7 January 1890	Rev. Wm. Powell
7	9 January 1890	John Ewing Annie Slap	John Main Annie Berryman 💍 1890/925	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 21	Wellington Levin	years years	House of Mr. Staff, Levin	90/286 Wellington		9 January 1890	Rev. C. H. Laws
8	11 January 1890	James Craig Margaret Greer	James Craig Margaret Greer 💍 1890/3597	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	43 25	Wellington Wellington	5 days 1 year	Registrars office, Wellington	90/300		11 January 1890	W. T. Wyatt
9	13 January 1890	Martin Cleary Agnes Maude Dotties	Martin Cleary Agnes Maude Dobbie 💍 1890/3665	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 23	Wellington Wellington	1 week 1 week	Registrars office, Wellington	90/301		13 January 1890	W. T. Wyatt
10	14 January 1890	Thomas Henry Howe Ellen Berry	Thomas Henry Prowse Ellen Berry 💍 1890/229	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	20 19	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office, Wellington	90/303	George Cousins, Guardian; John Henry Berry, father	14 January 1890	W. T. Wyatt
11	15 January 1890	Joseph Palmer Bertha Emelia Adelaide Stern	Joseph Palmer Bertha Emilia Adelaide Stern 💍 1890/429	Bachelor Spinster	Dairyman	26 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Stern, Barker Street	90/279		15 January 1890	Mr. Edward Lewis
12	16 January 1890	William Edmonds Alice Hopkins	William Edmunds Alice Hoskins 💍 1890/3598	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	36 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office, Wellington	90/302		16 January 1890	W. T. 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).