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 137

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1890 Registrar William Thomas Wyatt

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
25	28 January 1890	George McCartney Mary Teager Francis	George McCartney Mary Seager Francis 💍 1890/421	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 21	Wellington Wellington	9 months 3 months	House of Mr Francis Hankey Street	90/276		28 January 1890	Rev. J. Paterson
26	30 January 1890	Thomas William McLachlan Jane Tonks	Thomas William McLachlan Jane Tonks 💍 1890/3600	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 23	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	90/306		30 January 1890	W. T. Wyatt
27	31 January 1890	Frederick Reed Mary Keeper	Frederick Reid Mary Keeper 💍 1890/423	Widower Spinster	Settler	45 27	Wellington Wellington	3 weeks 6 months	St Peters Church	90/295		31 January 1890	Rev. W. C. Waters
28	5 February 1890	Henry Oliff Alice Turner	Henry Oliff Alice Turner 💍 1890/3601	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	30 27	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	90/307		5 February 1890	W. T. Wyatt
29	6 February 1890	David Hickey Mary Buckley	David Hickey Mary Buckley 💍 1890/3663	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	24 25	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Mary of the Angels	90/259		6 February 1890	Rev. P. Kerrigan
30	8 February 1890	Edward Patrick Brogan Alice Tierney	Edward Patrick Brogan Alicia Tierney 💍 1890/218	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 23	Wellington Petone	years 1 month	St Marys Cathedral	90/246		8 February 1890	Very Rev. J. McNamara
31	10 February 1890	Valdemar Rode Anderson Annie Julia Robinson	Valdemar Rodes Anderson Annie Julia Robinson 💍 1890/793	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	22 22	Wellington Wellington	8 months 5 months	House of Mr Campbell Brougham Street	90/896		10 February 1890	Rev. C. I. Ogg
32	10 February 1890	Arthur Staples Barbara Gray	Arthur Staples Barbara Gray 💍 1890/420	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	21 18	Kilbirnie Wellington	years years	House of The Rev. J. K. Elliott Oriental Bay	90/293	George Gray, Father	10 February 1890	Rev. J. K. Elliott
33	11 February 1890	James Foster Mary Morshead	James Foster Mary Morshead 💍 1890/342	Bachelor Widow	Engineer	34 29	Wellington Wellington	15 months years	St Marks Church	90/253		11 February 1890	Rev. R. Coffey
34	12 February 1890	Francis Alfred Shelridge Mary Ann Millner	Francis Alfred Thelridge Mary Ann Millecen 💍 1890/332 Francis Alfred Cramer Mary Jane Hill 💍 1891/3311	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 22	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	House of Mr Jesse Millner Adelaide Road	90/267		12 February 1890	Rev. W. Shirer
35	12 February 1890	George Edwin Deane Isabel Mabel Stenhouse		Bachelor Spinster	Medical Practitioner Reader	32 24	Wellington Wellington	1 week years	St Josephs Church	90/248		12 February 1890	Very Rev. Felix Walters
36	13 February 1890	Albert Seager Lydia Emily Elliott	Albert Seager Lydia Emily Elliott 💍 1890/231	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 18	Lower Hutt Lower Hutt	years years	Registrars office Wellington	90/308	Edward Elliott, Father	13 February 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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).