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 214

District of Greymouth 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
1	2 January 1890	John Maguire Mary Ann Blocksage	John McGuire Mary Ann Blocksage 💍 1890/3587	Bachelor Widow	Miner Laundress	50 years 39 years	Moelhaus Flat Greymouth	8 years 7 years	Roman Catholic Chapel Greymouth	90/419		2 January 1890	Rev: Denis Carew Roman Catholic
2	6 January 1890	Thomas Kelley Elizabeth Fullardon	Thomas Kelly Elizabeth Fullarton 💍 1890/359 Thomas Kelly Elizabeth Meale 💍 1891/3407 Thomas Kelly Lucy Elizabeth Blondell 💍 1890/3607 Thomas Dillon Elizabeth Errington 💍 1891/326 Thomas Miller Elizabeth Ann Diggle 💍 1890/1846	Bachelor Spinster	Miner None	23 years 19 years	Greymouth Greymouth	7 days 7 days	At Office of Registrar of Marriages Greymouth	90/428	Thomas Fullardon father of the said Elizabeth Fullardon	6 January 1890	WA Barton Registrar of Marriages Greymouth
3	7 January 1890	Andrew Hansen Frances White	Andrew Hansen Frances White 💍 1890/442	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer None	39 years 21 years	Greymouth Greymouth	15 years 20 years	At the residence of the said Andrew Hansen situate in Arney Street Greymouth	90/420		7 January 1890	Rev: Cornelius Griffen Wesleyan
4	9 January 1890	Alexander Scott Emdy Jane Ross	Alexander Scott Emily Jane Ross 💍 1890/443	Bachelor Spinster	Miner None	22 years 22 years	Dobson Taylorville	16 months 13 months	At the residence of Frances Cloke Taylorville	90/421		9 January 1890	The Rev: C. Griffen Wesleyan
5	22 January 1890	Donald McLellan Eliza McNarn	Donald McLellan Eliza McNarn 💍 1890/364	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter None	30 years 17 years	Greymouth Greymouth	3 days 3 months	At Office of Registrar of Marriages Greymouth	90/429	William Mc Narn father of the said Eliza Mc Narn	22 January 1890	WA Barton Registrar of Marriages Greymouth
6	27 January 1890	Edwin Ashton Annie Elizabeth Horn	Edwin Ashton Annie Elizabeth Horn 💍 1890/447	Bachelor Spinster	Livery Stable Keeper Helper	22 years 17 years	Greymouth Greymouth	22 years 2 years	At the residence of Joseph Harris Horn situate in Boundary Street Greymouth	90/424	Joseph Harris Horn father of the said Annie Elizabeth Horn	27 January 1890	The Rev: Archdn W.P. Maclean Church of England

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).