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 1063

District of Ashburton 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
653	21 July 1890	William Senson Annie See	William Lennon Annie Lee 💍 1890/2536 William Simms Annie Keand 💍 1891/3573 William Beesley Annie Hunt 💍 1890/1756 William Waters Annie Henry 💍 1890/38	Bachelor Spinster	Wool Classer Domestic Servant	26 years 24	Ashburton Ashburton	12 years 5 years	Roman Catholic Church	90/2531		21 July 1890	Revd. B. Chastagnon
654	26 July 1890	Samuel Goodwin Elizabeth Hall	Samuel Goodwin Elizabeth Hall 💍 1890/2559	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 years 27 years	Ashburton Ashburton	3 days 18 months	St. Stephen's Church	90/2530		30 July 1890	Revd. E. A. Scott
655	28 July 1890	Samuel Hardley Sarah Ann Jones	Samuel Hardley Junr Sarah Ann Jones 💍 1890/2541	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith Dressmaker	27 years 22 years	Ashburton Hampstead	13 years 22 years	Primitive Methodist Church	90/2536		28 July 1890	Revd. J. Boothroyd
656	2 August 1890	William Beveridge Margaret Base	William Beveridge Margaret Bare 💍 1890/2539	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Picker	21 years 20 years	Ashburton Allenton	18 months 3 months	Private Dwelling house of Robert Base at Allenton	90/2534	Robert Base, Father	6 August 1890	Revd. A. M. Beattie
657	18 August 1890	Frank Amos Agnes Brown	Frank Amos Agnes Brown 💍 1890/2540	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	29 years 24 years	Wakanui Wakanui	11 years 15 years	Private Dwelling house of James Brown	90/2535	Robert [illegible]	18 August 1890	Revd. A. M. Beattie
658	23 August 1890	Fredric Colville Sarah Collins	Fredric Colville Sarah Jane Collins 💍 1890/2538	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	27 years 20 years	Ashburton Ashburton	3 days 3 days	Wesleyan Church	90/2533	Mary Collins, Mother	26 August 1890	Revd. J. Newman Beattie
659	27 August 1890	David McKenzie Olvis Warren	David McKenzie Avis Warren 💍 1890/2542	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	45 years 42 years	Springburn Springburn	16 years 10 years	Registrar's Office	90/2537		27 August 1890	J. Ward, Registrar
660	2 September 1890	Frederick William Bishop Elizabeth Small	Frederick William Bishop Elizabeth Small 💍 1890/2537	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 years 23 years	Tinwald Tinwald	3 years 7 years	Roman Catholic Church	90/2532		2 September 1890	Revd. B. Chastagnon

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).