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 125

District of Feilding 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
256	6 January 1890	James Challis Phoebe Emma Chittenden	James Challis Phoebe Emma Chittenden 💍 1890/224	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	31 28	Feilding Feilding	5 years 14 days	Registrars Office, Feilding	90/229		6 January 1890	James Beattie, Registrar
257	8 January 1890	Joseph Gnylee Elizabeth Sarah Diamond	Joseph Guylee Elizabeth Sarah Diamond 💍 1890/228	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	30 20	Makino Road Feilding	9 years 11 years	House occupied by James Diamond, Feilding	90/234	James Diamond (Father)	8 January 1890	Rev. Hugh M. Murray (Presbyterian)
258	13 January 1890	George Edward Little Elizabeth McRae	George Edward Little Elizabeth McKay McLeod 💍 1890/774	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Manager	30 22	Feilding Makino	7 years 14 years	House occupied by Mr McLeod, Makino	90/872		13 January 1890	Rev. A. M. L. Wright (Presbyterian)
259	18 January 1890	Richard Taylor James Mary Ellen James	Richard Taylor Mary Ellen James 💍 1890/227	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 18	Oroua Feilding	11 years 13 years	Church of England, Feilding	90/232	Thomas Poole James (Father)	18 January 1890	Rev. Alan J. Innis Jones (Church of England)
260	25 January 1890	Edward Cureen Mary Malone	Edward Cureen Mary Malone 💍 1890/695	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 22	Makino Road Makino Road	8 years 11 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Feilding	90/635		25 January 1890	Rev. J. G. Patterson (Roman Catholic)
261	28 January 1890	Alfred Edward Audry Ada Susannah Bray	Alfred Edward Awdry Ada Susannah Bray 💍 1890/3824	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	30 20	Feilding Feilding	3 days 14 years	Church of England, Feilding	90/233	Charles Bray (Father)	28 January 1890	Revd. Innis Jones (Church of England)
262	6 February 1890	Frederick Conrad Sarah Palmer	Frederick Conrad Sarah Palmer 💍 1890/225	Bachelor Spinster	Road maker	21 20	Feilding Feilding	6 Months 15 years	Registrars Office, Feilding	90/230	James Palmer (Father)	6 February 1890	James Beattie (Registrar)
263	13 February 1890	Daniel Thurston Sarah Jamieson	Daniel Thurston Sarah Jamieson 💍 1890/226	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	41 23	Feilding Feilding	3 days 3 days	Registrars Office, Feilding	90/231		13 February 1890	James Beattie (Registrar)
264	18 February 1890	Ernest Hornby Gibbons Violet Emma Liddle	Ernest Hornsby Gibbons Violet Emma Liddle 💍 1890/3832	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 22	Feilding Feilding	2 Months 2 Months	Church of England, Feilding	90/1200		18 February 1890	Revd. A. J. Innis Jones (Church of England)
265	13 March 1890	Richard Wood Emma Short	Richard Wood Emma Short 💍 1890/651	Bachelor Spinster	Evangelist	28 20	Feilding Feilding	1 Week 13 Years	Salvation Army Barracks, Feilding	90/856	Caroline Lucas formerly Short (Mother)	13 March 1890	Josiah Parsons Taylor (Salvation Army)

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).