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 232

District of Rangiora 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
605	4 January 1890	Charles George Rayner Martha Ellen Miles	Charles George Rayner Martha Ellen Miles 💍 1890/361	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher not any	25 years 19 years	Rangiora Rangiora	8 months 19 years	Church of England	90/449	John Miles, Father	4 January 1890	Rev. W. E. Gillam
606	7 January 1890	William Reeves, Junr. Rachel Penticost	William Reeves Rachel Pentecost 💍 1890/356	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Builder not any	21 years 21 years	Rangiora Rangiora	3 years 21 years	At the residence of Mr. Philip Penticost, Rangiora	90/445		7 January 1890	Rev. Alfred Peters
607	15 January 1890	Michael Doyle Ruth Adams	Michael Doyle Ruth Adams 💍 1890/353	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer not any	25 years 19 years	Loburn Ashley	20 years 16 years	Office of the Registrar, Rangiora	90/442	Robert Adams, Father	15 January 1890
608	4 February 1890	Joseph Taylor Caroline Smith	Joseph Taylor Caroline Smith 💍 1890/354	Bachelor Spinster	Lawyer not any	24 years 21 years	Rangiora Rangiora	4 days 21 years	Office of the Registrar, Rangiora	90/443		6 February 1890
609	10 February 1890	Frederick Woodsford Ellen Florence Humphreys	Frederick Woodsford Ellen Florence Humphreys 💍 1890/355	Bachelor Spinster	Groom not any	25 years 18 years	Rangiora Rangiora	3 years 18 years	Office of the Registrar, Rangiora	90/444	Frank Humphreys, Father	11 February 1890
610	18 February 1890	John Briggs Elizabeth Dawson	John Briggs Elizabeth Dawson 💍 1890/3656	Bachelor	Farmer	26 years	Woodend - Rangiora Rangiora	9 months	The Residence of Mr. George Dawson, Ohoka	90/441		18 February 1890	Rev. J. H. Gray
611	1 March 1890	Edgar Stannard Cole Rebecca Ayres	Edgar Stannard Cole Rebecca Ayres 💍 1890/360	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Dressmaker	32 years 32 years	Woodend Woodend	3 days 20 years	Wesleyan Church	90/448		1 March 1890	Rev. D. I. Murray
612	4 March 1890	James Theodore Ogden Withers Alice Ogden	James Theodore Withers Alice Ogden 💍 1890/357	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper not any	23 years 19 years	Southbrook - Rangiora Rangiora	23 years 19 years	Free Methodist Church, Rangiora	90/446	Amos Ogden, Father	5 March 1890	Rev. Alfred Peters
613	25 March 1890	William Cone Maria Walton	William Cone Maria Walton 💍 1890/470	Widower	Farmer	50 years	Ashley Bank, Rangiora Christchurch	20 years	Office of the Registrar, Christchurch	90/564		25 March 1890	Registrar of Births &c., Christchurch
614	29 March 1890	Matthew James Sherwin Margaret Hammon	Matthew James Sherwin Margaret Hammon 💍 1890/358	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper not any	28 years 23 years	Rangiora Rangiora	2 years 9 years	Free Methodist Church, Rangiora	90/447		29 March 1890	Rev. Alfred Peters

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).