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 524

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
80	1 April 1890	William Flower Emily Eliza Fletcher	William Flower Emily Eliza Fletcher 💍 1890/2727	Bachelor Spinster	Traveller	28 30	Wellington Wellington	9 months 12 years	Home of Mr Henderson, Adelaide Road	90/2758	1 April 1890	Revd Joseph Berry
81	2 April 1890	Alfred George Fisher Gilbert Florence Ellen Weekham	Alfred George Fisher Gilbert Florence Ellen Welham 💍 1890/1196	Bachelor Spinster	District Agent united life association	32 30	Wellington Lower Hutt	years years	St. James Church, Lower Hutt	90/1259	2 April 1890	Revd Joshua Jones
82	2 April 1890	Charles Daniel de California Amelia Bull	Charles Daniel de Castro Amelia Bull 💍 1890/1226	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk in Holy Orders	58 42	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Peters Church	90/1270	2 April 1890	Revd W. C. Waters
83	3 April 1890	Matthew Gilmour Martha Lucas	Matthew Gilmour Martha Lucas 💍 1890/3673	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	32 28	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. James Presbyterian, Adelaide Road	90/1247	3 April 1890	Revd William Shirer
84	8 April 1890	Richard Sullivan Margaret Lynch	John Sullivan Elizabeth Lynch 💍 1890/1422	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 26	Wellington Wellington	6 months years	St. Mary of the Angels	90/1883	8 April 1890	Revd P. Kerrigan
85	8 April 1890	George Herbert Humphreys Catherine Lyons Cameron	George Herbert Humphreys Catherine Lyons Cameron 💍 1890/3691	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	23 23	Wellington Kaiwarra	6 days years	House of Mr Cameron, Kaiwarra	90/1220	8 April 1890	Revd J. Paterson
86	8 April 1890	Charles William Hoffman Elizabeth Cecilia Andrew	Charles William Hoffman Elizabeth Cecelia Andrew 💍 1890/1228	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	22 21	Wellington Wellington	4 days 6 months	Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street	90/1272	8 April 1890	Revd Joseph Berry
87	8 April 1890	William Halliburton Ada Elizabeth Hood	William Halliburton Ada Elizabeth Hood 💍 1890/1227	Bachelor Spinster	Lithographer	26 23	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Peters Church	90/1271	8 April 1890	Revd W. C. Waters
88	8 April 1890	Thomas Robert Blyth Mary Lizzie Simpson	Thomas Robert Blyth Mary Lizzie Timpson 💍 1890/1216	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 27	Wellington Wellington	1 week 1 month	Registrars Office, Wellington	90/1282	8 April 1890	W. T. Wyatt
89	8 April 1890	Ernest James Salisbury Kate Amelia Smith	Ernest James Salisbury Kate Amelia Smith 💍 1890/3676	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep farmer	26 29	Ohariu Wellington	6 months years	House of Mr J. C. Smith, Pipitea Street	90/1261	8 April 1890	Revd W. G. Dean
90	9 April 1890	John Burke Mary Brew	John Burke Mary Brew 💍 1890/3670	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 23	Wellington Wellington	1 week 7 years	St. Marys Cathedral	90/1244	9 April 1890	Very Revd Mc Namara
91	9 April 1890	Mathew Cree Mary Annie Donald	Mathew Cree Mary Ann McDonald 💍 1890/1203	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	24 26	Wellington Wellington	1 week years	St. Johns Church, Woolcombe Street	90/1248	9 April 1890	Revd James Paterson

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).