Intentions to Marry, 1892

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840404, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 28 2025

Page 664

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1892

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
258	19 September 1892	William Hewkestly Ballam Maud Anderson	William Hawkesby Ballam Maud Anderson 💍 1892/2204	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	23 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	92/2343		19 September 1892	W. I. Wyatt
259	20 September 1892	Hubert John Eames Inez au Castro	Hubert John Eames Inez de Castro 💍 1892/3693	Bachelor Spinster	Dentist	22 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mrs Shachan Hopper Street	92/3936		20 September 1892	Revd. J. Paterson
260	20 September 1892	George Pomman Christina Sutherland	George Pouman Christina Sutherland 💍 1892/2167	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	36 35	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Bridegroom Kent Terrace	92/2307		20 September 1892	Revd. J. G. Chapman
261	23 September 1892	Arthur Viant Mitchell Alice Harriet Jefferys	Arthur Viant Mitchell Alice Harriet Jefferys 💍 1892/3095	Bachelor Spinster	Foreman	22 21	Upper Hutt Wellington	years years	St. Mary of the Angels Boulcott Street	92/3297		23 September 1892	Revd. I. Cherry
262	26 September 1892	Nicholas Henry Florence Basterfield	Nicholas Henry Florence Basterfield 💍 1892/2205	Widower Spinster	Bootmaker	38 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	92/2344		26 September 1892	W. I. Wyatt
263	26 September 1892	William Hutcheson Hour Alice Rudman	William Hutcheson Horn Alice Rudman 💍 1892/2162	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 20	Wellington Wellington	5 months years	Brides Residence Kent Terrace	92/2278	Henry Rudman, Father	26 September 1892	Charles Robinson
264	27 September 1892	Frederick Knewstubb Jessie Densen	Frederick Knewstubb Jessie Densem 💍 1892/3231	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	29 21	Wellington Wellington	1 month 3 days	House of Mr Childen Charlotte Street	92/3339		27 September 1892	Revd. J. G. Chapman
265	27 September 1892	William Patrick Ryan Nora Bowker	William Patrick Ryan Nora Bourke 💍 1892/2213	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	27 21	Tawa Flat Wellington	years 1 week	Registrars office Wellington	92/2345		27 September 1892	W. I. Wyatt
266	29 September 1892	Edward Adcock Smith Susan Matilda Griffith	Edward Adcock Smith Susan Matilda Griffiths 💍 1892/3108	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	42 42	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Pauls Cathedral	92/3311		29 September 1892	Revd. I. Hobcroft

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).