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 829

District of Auckland 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
261	2 July 1890	John Munro Helen Jessie Weaver	John Munro Helen Jessie Weaver 💍 1890/2173	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Officer	29 28	Auckland Auckland	8 years 4 years	Church of St. Paul at Auckland	90/2011		2 July 1890	Rev. C. M. Nelson
262	4 July 1890	Robert Taylor Rose McCaffery	Robert Taylor Rose McCaffery 💍 1890/2176	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	21 19	Newton Road Auckland	21 years 19 years	Church of St. Sepulchre Auckland	90/2014	Thomas McCaffery, Father	4 July 1890	Rev. B. T. Dudley
263	4 July 1890	Lucas Shirley Maxwell Amante Frances Bolton	Lucas Sherley Maxwell Amante Frances Bolton 💍 1890/2180	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 25	Northcote Chelsea	10 years 4 years	St. Peters Church Chelsea	90/2018		4 July 1890	Rev. H. S. Davis
264	4 July 1890	Richard James Owen Amy Amelia Edwards	Richard James Owen Amy Amelia Edwards 💍 1890/2175	Bachelor Spinster	Phonographer	29 20	Melbourne Mt. Eden	8 years 20 years	Church of St. Sepulchre Auckland	90/2013	Annie Edwards, Mother	4 July 1890	Rev. B. T. Dudley
265	4 July 1890	William Stevens Smith Marian McDonald	William Stevens Smith Marian McDonald 💍 1890/2156 William Sutherland Mary McDonald 💍 1890/2596 William Russell Durrant Sarah McDonald 💍 1890/2556	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 35	Wairau South Wairau South	16 years 30 years	Dwelling of Mr. Charles McDonald, East St. Newton	90/1994		4 July 1890	Rev. Wm. Birch
266	5 July 1890	Charles Nicholls Julia Ellen Hoare	Charles Nicholls Julia Ellen Hart 💍 1890/2144	Bachelor	Farmer	38 30	Mangere Mangere	14 years 10 years	Dwelling of Mr. John Hoare, Mangere	90/1963		5 July 1890	Rev. T. Adams
267	5 July 1890	Alfred Langham Foster Jessie Alice Hay	Alfred Langham Foster Jessie Ellis Hay 💍 1890/2151	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	29 23	Auckland Remuera	9 years 4 months	Dwelling of Mr. Jessie Hay, Remuera	90/1989		5 July 1890	Rev. G. B. Munro
268	5 July 1890	William Waller Ellis Sarah Ann Elizabeth Phillips	William Walter Ellis Sarah Ann Elisabeth Phillips 💍 1890/2185	Widower Widow	Law Clerk	39 39	Auckland Auckland	5 years 4 years	Registrars Office Auckland	90/2022		5 July 1890	Reg. of Marriages

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).