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 1073

District of Timaru 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
49	2 July 1890	William Sole Emma Wills	William Sole Emma Wills 💍 1890/2578 William Moyle Elizabeth Ann Wills 💍 1890/1350	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 21	Waimate Waimate	1 week 1 week	Registrar's Office, Timaru	90/2561		2 July 1890	Registrar of Marriages, Timaru
50	4 July 1890	William Morris Cook Emily Hosking	William Morris Cook Emily Hosking 💍 1890/2577	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 22	Timaru Timaru	1 month 1 month	Primitive Methodist Church, Timaru	90/2560		4 July 1890	Revd. William Woollass, Primitive Methodist
51	18 July 1890	Reuben Adrien Fonseca Nancy Hannah Taylor	Reuben Adrian Fonseca Nancy Hannah Taylor 💍 1890/2574	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Nil	28 20	Timaru Japes Valley	all life all life	Congregational Ch. Timaru	90/2551		18 July 1890	Revd. E. C. Cecil, Congregational Minister
52	21 July 1890	Alexander McLeod Jane Campbell	Alexander McLeod Jane Campbell 💍 1890/2560 Alexander Townley Mary Jane Campbell 💍 1890/3512	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 19	Opihi Otaio Valley	10 years 5 years	Presbyterian Church, Pleasant Point	90/2547		21 July 1890	Revd. Wm. White, Presbyterian Minister
53	26 July 1890	Richard Smith Eliza Jane Batchelor	Richard Smith Eliza Jane Batchelor 💍 1890/2571	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 22	Pleasant Point Albury	17 years 10 years	Presbyterian Church, Timaru	90/2548		26 July 1890	Revd. Wm. Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
54	31 July 1890	John Arden Mary Ann Mills	John Arden Mary Ann Mills 💍 1890/2575	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	39 31	Otaio Otaio	2 years 6 weeks	Dwelling house of Mr. W. Arden, Otaio	90/2558		31 July 1890	Revd. L. Carsley Broadley, Episcopalian Minister
55	21 August 1890	James McLay Mary Jane Sims	James McLay Mary Jane Sims 💍 1890/2572	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer House Keeper	29 years 21 years	Langdon Farm Timaru	3 days 14 days	Presbyterian Church, Timaru	90/2549		21 August 1890	Revd. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
56	26 August 1890	Patrick Hartnett Catherine O'Boyle	Patrick Hartwell Catharine O'Boyle 💍 1890/3297	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer House Keeper	33 years 19 years	Otipua Creek Blairlogie near Timaru	11 years 11 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Timaru	90/2555	Neil O'Boyle, father	26 August 1890	Revd. James Foley, Roman Catholic Clergyman
57	28 August 1890	John Talbot Elizabeth Eleanor Smith	John Talbot Elizabeth Eleanor Smith 💍 1890/2551	Widower Spinster	Farmer House Keeper	44 years 47 years	Mt. Sefton, Timaru Mt. Sefton, Timaru	3 days 20 years	Dwelling house of Mr. John Melton, Waititi near Timaru	90/2545		28 August 1890	Revd. Thomas Albert Hamilton, Church of England Minister

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).