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 175

District of Napier 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
9	18 January 1890	Mordaunt Cromwell Winter Caroline Torr	Mordannt Crommelin Winter Caroline Torr 💍 1890/238	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	30 24	Patoka Napier	6 months 2 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Napier	90/877	18 January 1890	L. Jago, Registrar
10	20 January 1890	Samuel James Storkey Sarah Edith Dean	Samuel James Storkey Sarah Edith Dean 💍 1890/512	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	24 24	Napier Napier	15 years 6 years	Residence of the Bride's father, Milton Road, Napier	90/873	20 January 1890	Rev. J. Parkinson, Church of England
11	23 January 1890	James Johnston Laura Caroline Bedingfield	James Johnston Laura Caroline Bealingfield 💍 1890/796	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic	35 over 21	Napier Napier	6 months 8 years	Residence of Mr. Duncan Macrae, Shakespeare Terrace, Napier	90/899	23 January 1890	Rev. J. G. Paterson, Presbyterian
12	24 January 1890	Henry Collins Winifred Hunt	Henry Collins Winnfred Hunt 💍 1890/757	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	35 26	Hastings Napier	14 years 20 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Hastings	90/878	24 January 1890	Rev. Father Grogan, Catholic Priest
13	25 January 1890	James O'Connor Kate O'Neill	James O'Connor Kate O'Neill 💍 1890/758	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Domestic	28 25	Puketiri Napier	5 years 3 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Napier	90/879	25 January 1890	Rev. Father Grogan, Napier, Catholic Priest
14	24 January 1890	Alfred Henry Hickson Kate Hickey	Alfred Henry Hickson Kate Hickey 💍 1890/759	Bachelor Spinster	Cook Domestic	25 23	Puketiri Napier	1 month 4 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Napier	90/880	24 January 1890	Rev. Father Grogan, Catholic Priest
14	4 February 1890	Thomas McEntyre Mary Johnston	Thomas McIntyre Mary Johnston 💍 1890/778	Bachelor Spinster	Bookmaker Domestic	28 26	Napier Napier	10 years 1 month	Residence of Rev. J. G. Paterson, Napier	90/901	4 February 1890	Rev. J. G. Paterson, Presbyterian
15	28 January 1890	Alexander Montgomery Marion Venn	Alexander Montgomery Marion Venn 💍 1890/508	Bachelor Spinster	Police Constable	34 28	Napier Napier	6 weeks 12 days	Trinity Wesleyan Church, Napier	90/876	28 January 1890	Rev. D. Mac Nicoll, Wesleyan
16	3 February 1890	Louis Hopkins Selina Jane Maybe Johnson	Louis Hopkins Selina Jane Moyle 💍 1890/797	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	36 39	Napier Napier	14 years 16 years	Residence of Rev. J. G. Paterson, Napier	90/900	3 February 1890	Rev. J. G. Paterson, Presbyterian

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).