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 636

District of Christchurch 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
125	10 April 1890	Charles Frederick Hausen Emma Lloyd	Charles Frederick Hansen Emma Lloyd 💍 1890/1867	Bachelor Widow	Seaman Grocer	36 42	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 8 years	Registrar's Office	90/1575	10 April 1890	Registrar of Marriages J. W. Parkerson
126	12 April 1890	George Tulley Sarah Gaskill	George Tulley Sarah Gaskill 💍 1890/1930	Bachelor Widow	Housekeeper	59 65	Sydenham Christchurch	34 years 34 years	House of George Tulley, Harper Street	90/1551	12 April 1890	Rev. W. Harper, Church of England
127	12 April 1890	John Walter Hope May Rose Parkinson	John Walter Hope May Rose Parkinson 💍 1890/1883	Bachelor Spinster	Presbyterian Minister	31 21	Wellington Christchurch	2 months 3 days	St. Andrew's Church	90/1568	12 April 1890	Rev. G. Webster, Presbyterian
128	14 April 1890	Hedley Necars Haste Louisa Mary Moore	Hedley Vicars Haste Mary Louisa Moore 💍 1890/949	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyors Assistant	30 26	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 10 days	House of Rev. J. Elmslie, Richfield Street	90/1485	14 April 1890	Rev. J. Elmslie, Presbyterian
129	14 April 1890	Hamilton Councell Rachel Christina Pugh	Hamilton McConnell Rachel Christina Pugh 💍 1890/1940	Spinster		27	House of Mr. James Pound, Blake Street Sydenham	16 years 16 years	House of Mr. James Pound, Blake Street	90/1561	14 April 1890	Rev. F. W. Isitt, Wesleyan
130	14 April 1890	Thomas Curties Annie Burt	Thomas Curties Annie Burt 💍 1890/1850	Widower Widow	Engineer	50 47	Christchurch Christchurch	3 months 2 years	House of Thomas Curties, Durham Street	90/1532	14 April 1890	Rev. W. J. Potter, Methodist
131	14 April 1890	George Duncan Macfarlane Annie Rowbottom	George Duncan Macfarlane Annie Rowbottom 💍 1890/1941	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	33 26	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 3 years	St. Andrew's Church	90/1538	14 April 1890	Rev. Archd. Dugard, 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).