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 556

District of Waipawa Quarter ending 30 June 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
411	19 April 1890	August Svenson Mary Fredsburg	August Svenson Mary Fredsberg 💍 1890/1268	Bachelor Spinster	Stockman Stockman	24 25	Waipawa Waipawa	3 days 3 days	St. John's Presbyterian Church, Waipawa	90/1335		19 April 1890	Rev. H. W. Johnston
412	6 May 1890	Albert Tetzelaff Selena Elizabeth Masters	Albert Tetzlaff Selena Elizabeth Masters 💍 1890/1286	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Farmer	32 27	Waipawa Waipawa	1 week 1 week	Office of the Registrar, Waipawa	90/1341		6 May 1890	Samuel Johnson, Registrar, Waipawa
413	20 May 1890	Michael O'Connor Katherine Talty	Michael O'Connor Catharine Talty 💍 1890/1285	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Cook	26 28	Waipawa Waipawa	3 days 3 days	St. Patrick's Church, Waipawa	90/1340		20 May 1890	Rev. T. G. Dawson
414	21 May 1890	Henry Veale Elizabeth Anderson	Henry Veale Elizabeth Anderson 💍 1890/1270	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Butcher	23 17	Waipawa Waipawa	20 years 17 years	Residence of E. Bird	90/1337	Sarah Wilson, formerly [illegible]	21 May 1890	Rev. Job Benning
415	3 June 1890	Alfred Groom Wood Elizabeth Gordon	Alfred Groom Wood Elizabeth Gordon 💍 1890/1269	Bachelor Spinster	Horse Trainer Horse Trainer	21 19	Kaikora Kaikora	1 month 1 week	Residence of H. Brock, Kaikora	90/1336	Henderson Gordon, father	3 June 1890	Rev. R. W. Johnston
416	21 June 1890	Edward Oakdenfull Isabel Emelia Full	Edward Oakenfull Isabel Emelin Jull 💍 1890/1271	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Storeman	29 23	Waipawa Waipawa	14 years 10 years	Residence of Mr. J. H. Full, Waipawa	90/1338		21 June 1890	Rev. J. C. Eccles
417	25 June 1890	Ole Hansen Anna Kirstine Jensen	Ole Hansen Anna Kerstine Jensin 💍 1890/1279	Bachelor Widow	Farmer Farmer	35 35	Blackbourn Makaretu	12 years [illegible]	Residence of Mrs. Ole Hansen, Makaretu	90/1339		25 June 1890	Rev. J. L. Legarth

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).