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 797

District of Whangarei Quarter ending 30 September 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
18	18 July 1890	William Copeland Annie Wakelin	William Copeland Annie Wakelin 💍 1890/2107	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist Operator	29 23	Auckland Whangarei	1 year 23 years	Private Residence of Annie Wakelin Kamo	90/1939		9 July 1890	Rev L L Cubitt
19	19 July 1890	James Deane to Naughton Marian Harriott Planted	James Daniel McNaughton Marian Harriott Plaisted 💍 1890/2807	Bachelor Spinster	School Teacher School Teacher	20 20	Auckland Auckland	15 months 12 months	Private Residence of Marian Harriott Planted Auckland	90/2770	Shirt Naughton father, Arthur Planted father	14 July 1890	Rev J Thomas Wesleyan
20	20 July 1890	John Albert Pearson Elizabeth Ann Katherine	John Albert Pearson Elizabeth Ann Wilkinson 💍 1890/3569	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Storekeeper	24 25	Whangarei Whangarei	2 years 3 years	Private Residence of John Albert Pearson Whangarei	90/1940		17 July 1890	Rev L L Cubitt
21	21 August 1890	Alexander McKinnon Agnes Kerr	Alexander McKinnon Agnes Kerr 💍 1890/2110	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Farmer	26 19	Whareora Whareora	6 years 7 years	Private Residence of Agnes Kerr Whareora	90/1943	Rev J Kerr	9 August 1890	Presbyterian
22	22 August 1890	Leonel Hanlon Jessie Henrietta Weight	Lionel Hanlon Jessie Henrietta Wright 💍 1890/2249	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Farmer	33 34	Whangarei Paeroa	8 years 9 years	Private Residence of Jessie Henrietta Weight Paeroa	90/2094		9 August 1890	Rev J S Evans
23	23 August 1890	Francis Stanley Lily Melvin	Francis Stanley Lily Melvin 💍 1890/2111	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Labourer	24 18	Whangarei Whangarei	3 years 3 years	Roman Catholic Church Whangarei	X	Rev Fahi to Mahan	11 August 1890	RC
24	24 September 1890	Alfred George Harvey Ann Simpson	Alfred George Harvey Ann Simpson 💍 1890/2108	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Printer	31 28	Whangarei Whangarei	3 months 20 years	Presbyterian Church Whangarei	90/1944	Catherine [illegible] mother	1 September 1890	Rev L L Cubitt
25	25 September 1890	Edward Samuel Dent Margaret Smith	Edward Samuel Dent Margaret Smith 💍 1890/2109	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Farmer	28 23	Whareora Whareora	28 years 23 years	Private Residence of Edward Samuel Dent Whareora	90/1942		16 September 1890	Rev L L Cubitt
26	26 October 1890	Charles Eyles Elizabeth Simpson	Charles Eyles Elizabeth Simpson 💍 1890/3799	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Bootmaker	26 21	Whangarei Whangarei	5 years 2 years	Private Residence of Elizabeth Simpson Whangarei	90/2837		1 October 1890	Rev L L Cubitt

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).