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 136

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
13	16 January 1890	George Rathbone Pearse Elizabeth Ann Barber	George Rathbone Pearse Elizabeth Ann Barber 💍 1890/334	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	31 27	Upper Hutt Upper Hutt	years years	St Johns Church Upper Hutt	90/269		16 January 1890	Rev Joshua Jones
14	16 January 1890	William Arthur Kitchen Alice Ada Haybittle	William Arthur Kitchen Alice Ada Haybittle 💍 1890/328	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	26 24	Wellington Upper Hutt	years years	House of Mr W. Haybittle Upper Hutt	90/263		16 January 1890	Rev William Kirk
15	20 January 1890	William Corbett Alice Eliza Allen	William Corbett Alice Eliza Allen 💍 1890/414	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	38 24	Wellington Wellington	4 days 4 days	House of Mrs Corbett Cambridge Terrace	90/287		20 January 1890	Rev C. H. Laws
16	24 January 1890	John Jardine Ewing Grace Nellie Townsend	John Jardine Ewing Grace Nellie Townsend 💍 1890/792	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	Pier Hotel Grey Street	90/695		24 January 1890	Rev C. J. Ogg
17	24 January 1890	Henry Clifton Gibbons Annie Elizabeth Young	Harry Clifton Gibbons Annie Elizabeth Young 💍 1890/324	Bachelor Spinster	Seedsman	29 19	Wellington Wellington	10 months 12 months	St Pauls Cathedral Thorndon	90/250	Lucy Young mother	24 January 1890	Rev John Still
18	24 January 1890	George William Fowler Allie Barham	George William Fowles Altie Barham 💍 1890/3599	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	40 28	Wellington Wellington	2 days years	Registrars office Wellington	90/307		24 January 1890	W. J. Wyatt
19	25 January 1890	Edwin Britton Ann Blore	Edwin Britton Ann Blore 💍 1890/791	Widower Widow	Carpenter	32 35	Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 days	Presbyterian Church Wellington Terrace	90/894		25 January 1890	Rev C. J. Ogg
20	25 January 1890	John Maxwell Cameron Clara Lyster	John Maxwell Cameron Clara Lyster 💍 1890/230	Bachelor Spinster	Viceman	33 26	Wellington Wellington	1 week years	Registrars office Wellington	90/305		25 January 1890	W. J. Wyatt
21	25 January 1890	Archibald Cameron Catherine Christiana Hannah Campbell	Archibald Cameron Catherine Christy Hannah Campbell 💍 1890/347	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	39 23	Wellington Wellington	5 days years	St Mary of the Angels	90/258		25 January 1890	Rev P. Kenegan
22	25 January 1890	William Cooper Emily Sarah Robinson	William Cooper Sarah Emily Robinson 💍 1890/327	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	30 27	Makara Makara	years years	St Matthias Church Makara	90/262		25 January 1890	Rev A. Dasent
23	27 January 1890	Ransom Garbutt Susan Saywell Tarrant	Ransom Garbutt Susan Saywell Tarrant 💍 1890/2121	Bachelor Spinster	Salvationist	27 24	Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 days	Salvation Army Barracks Taranaki Street	90/1929		27 January 1890	Josiah P. Taylor
24	27 January 1890	George McCartney Mary Seager Francis	George McCartney Mary Seager Francis 💍 1890/421	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 24	Wellington Wellington	6 months 3 months	House of Mr Francis Hankey Street	90/274		28 January 1890	Rev J. Paterson
25	27 January 1890	Charles George Richardson Mary Ann Hill	Charles George Richardson Mary Ann Hill 💍 1890/427 Thomas Richard Arthur Liddiard Mary Ann Hill 💍 1891/3636	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	24 18	Wellington Petone	years 6 months	House of Mr Hill Courtenay Place	90/277	John Hill Father	27 January 1890	Rev J. 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).