Intentions to Marry, 1889

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840401, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, May 23 2025

Page 983

District of Greymouth Quarter ending 30 September 1889

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
27	12 July 1889	George Clarence Burnage Edith Sarah Elmer	George Clarence Dunnage Edith Sarah Elmer 💍 1889/2222	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk None	29 years 23 years	Kumara Greymouth	1 month 23 years	Church of England Kumara	89/2234		12 July 1889	W. B. Maclean Church of England
28	19 July 1889	Charles Hargreaves Mary Crawshaw	Charles Hargreaves Mary Crawshaw 💍 1889/2198	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Dressmaker	28 years 28 years	Brunnerton Brunnerton	2 years 8 months	At office of Registrar of Marriages Greymouth	89/2230		19 July 1889	The Registrar of Marriages Greymouth
29	19 July 1889	Thomas Pennell Elizabeth Gillespie	Thomas Bennett Elizabeth Gillispie 💍 1889/2223 Thomas Bennett Elizabeth Grey 💍 1889/2056 Thomas Kelly Elizabeth Fullarton 💍 1890/359 Thomas Pounder Elizabeth Robinson 💍 1889/2224 Thomas Potter Elizabeth Mitchell Peat 💍 1889/1705 Thomas Steeds Elizabeth Stokes 💍 1890/465	Bachelor Spinster	Engine driver None	29 years 24 years	Greymouth Greymouth	10 years 4 years	Church of England Greymouth	89/2235		19 July 1889	The Rev. W. B. Maclean Church of England
30	30 July 1889	George Lugar Mary Ann Poschuck		Bachelor Spinster	Miner None	28 years 18 years	Barrytown Barrytown	6 months 18 years	Roman Catholic Chapel Barrytown	89/2652	Raymond Poschuck father of the said Mary Ann Poschuck Roman Catholic	30 July 1889	The Rev. E. Pertus
31	5 August 1889	Francis Duggan Isabella Fisher	Francis Duggan Isabella Fisher 💍 1889/2661	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer None	27 years 23 years	Brunnerton Brunnerton	4 years 4 years	Roman Catholic Chapel Greymouth	89/2650		5 August 1889	The Rev. Denis Caren Roman Catholic
32	19 August 1889	Samuel Thomas Martin Robenalle Annie Stenberg	Samuel Thomas Martin Robinetta Annie Stenberg 💍 1889/2218	Bachelor Spinster	Draper None	20 years 18 years	Cobden Cobden	6 months 8 years	At the residence of Jonas Stenberg	89/2233	Jonas Stenberg father of the said Robenalle Annie Stenberg	19 August 1889	The Rev. C. Graffan Wesleyan

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).