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 968

District of Napier 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
56	7 July 1890	Alexander McKay Catherine McKay	Alexander McLean Catherine McKenzie 💍 1890/1449 Walter Alexander Milne Catherine McKegg 💍 1890/1326 Alexander Stewart Catherine Westphal 💍 1890/1331	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman Dressmaker	30 25	Maraekakaho Napier Fernhill Napier	6 years 1 week	Residence of the Bride's father	90/2313		7 July 1890	Rev Robb Fraser Presbyterian
57	7 July 1890	John Lees Sarah Grace Sheere Peace	John Lees Sarah Grace Sheere Pearce 💍 1890/1453 John Lees Margaritha Breidecker 💍 1890/826	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	34 20	Greenmeadows Greenmeadows	2 1/2 years 4 years	Church of England	90/2321	Lewis May Step-father of Sarah Grace Sheere Peace	7 July 1890	Rev G. L. Tuke Church of England
58	9 July 1890	Thomas Gilbert Nowell Mary Jane Woodfield	Thomas Gilbert Howell Mary Jane Woodfield 💍 1890/3397	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	24 22	Puketapu Greenmeadows	2 years 2 years	Residence of the Bride's father at Greenmeadows	90/2315		9 July 1890	Rev S. L. Douglas Presbyterian
59	16 July 1890	Allan Lockie Mary Ferguson	Allan Lockie Mary Ferguson 💍 1890/2803 William Bannerman McKeohnie Mary Ferguson 💍 1890/710	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	34 22	Maraekakaho Napier Napier	7 years 4 years	St Paul's Church Napier	90/2789		16 July 1890	Rev J. G. Paterson Presbyterian
60	16 July 1890	William Ryan Mary Condon	William Ryan Mary Condon 💍 1890/1462	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	28 24	Napier Napier	5 days 2 weeks	Roman Catholic Chapel Napier	90/2308		16 July 1890	Rev Father Grogan RC Priest
61	22 July 1890	Owen King Frances Malcon	Owen King Frances Malcay 💍 1890/1463	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger	27 23	Napier Napier	2 1/2 years 20 years	Roman Catholic Chapel Napier	90/2309		22 July 1890	Rev Father Grogan RC Priest
62	22 July 1890	Henry Page Margaret Barr	Henry Page Margaret Barr 💍 1890/2804	Bachelor Spinster	Cabmaker	29 23	Napier Napier	3 1/2 years 9 months	Residence of Mr Oakley Fitzroy Road Napier	90/2790		22 July 1890	Rev J. G. Paterson Presbyterian
63	23 July 1890	John Munichan Malvina Poweroy Lagos	John Minahan Malvina Pomeroy Lagor 💍 1890/1451	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	39 49	Napier Napier	6 months 4 months	Office of the Registrar of Marriages Napier	90/2316		23 July 1890	L. J. Jago Registrar
64	4 August 1890	William Hugh Mawhway Edith Meehan Lucas	William Hugh Manhinay Edith Meekan Lucas 💍 1890/1577	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Dressmaker	23 18	Napier Napier	18 months 16 years	The Cathedral Napier	90/2794	William Lucas father of Edith Meehan Lucas	4 August 1890	Dean Hovell 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).