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 848

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
373	25 September 1890	George Henry Brown Eliza Anne Glanville	George Henry Kay Eliza Ann Glanville 💍 1890/2826	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer dependent	22 25	Panmure Pakuranga	2 years 9 years	All Saints Church, Ponsonby	90/2936		25 September 1890	Revd. J. Foxe Ch of England
374	25 September 1890	Thomas Cistle Milower Esther McDonald	Thomas Castles Esther McDonald 💍 1890/2143	Widower Spinster	Farmer Housekeeper	48 46	Waipipi Otahuhu	14 years 24 years	Roman Catholic Church, Waipipi	90/1962		25 September 1890	Revd. D. O'Hara R Catholic
375	25 September 1890	Edward Moore Brown Mary Rickle	Edward Moore Mary Shackle 💍 1890/2331	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Spinster	34 34	Auckland Auckland	18 years 4 years	Church of St Matthew, Auckland	90/2066		25 September 1890	Revd. M. Tebbs Ch of England
376	25 September 1890	Andrew Morgan Fanny Cherry	Andrew Morgan Fanny Cherry 💍 1890/2326	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Milliner	39 37	New Lynn New Lynn	5 years 20 years	Registrar's Office	90/2061		25 September 1890	J. Owen Lord Regr.
377	26 September 1890	Philip Helen Brown Edith Dick		Bachelor Spinster	Circus Proprietor Spinster	26 21	Auckland Parnell	5 months 21 years	Church of St Michael	90/1968		26 September 1890	Revd. J. Preston Ch of England
378	26 September 1890	Joseph Mart Betten Mary Louisa Dickens	Joseph Ward Batten Mary Louisa Siebert 💍 1890/2154 Joseph Henry Kelly Mary Louisa Williams 💍 1890/2930	Bachelor Spinster	Steward Spinster	26 19	Onehunga Onehunga	2 years 4 years	The Presbyterian Church, Onehunga	90/1992	By her Father	26 September 1890	Revd. J. McMillan Congl. Indept.
379	26 September 1890	David Frame Cole Mary Jane Whyte	David Graeme Cole Mary Jane Whyte 💍 1890/2146	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Spinster	26 26	Mangere Onehunga	9 years 36 years	The Presbyterian Church	90/1965		29 September 1890	Revd. J. Adams Presbyterian

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).