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 1165

District of Sivereargill Quarter ending 30 September 1890 Registrar John Winstanley Wilkin

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
66	15 August 1890	Samuel Smith Bertha Sophia Dawson	Samuel Smith Bertha Sophia Dawson 💍 1890/1532	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmiller	25 19	Sivereargill Brunswick	4 days 14 years	House of Euw. J. H. Dawson	90/2720	Father	15 August 1890	Rev James Gray
67	11 September 1890	Jacob Alsweiler Rose King	Jacob Alsweiler Rose King 💍 1890/1519	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	28 21	Sivereargill Sivereargill	28 years 3 years	Salvation Army Barracks	90/2731		11 September 1890	Col J. P. Taylor
68	12 September 1890	Thomas Brown Sarah Elizabeth Broad	Thomas Brown Sarah Elizabeth Broad 💍 1890/1533	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	24 21	Sivereargill Gladstone	24 years 21 years	House of Thos. Broad Gladstone	90/2721		12 September 1890	Rev J. Evans
69	15 September 1890	Thomas Alfred Patchett Ellen Sarah Lomas	Thomas Alfred Patchett Ellen Sarah Lomas 💍 1890/1534	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	22 19	Sivereargill Sivereargill	22 years 16 years	St John Church Tay St	90/2724	William Lomas, father	15 September 1890	Ven Archdeacon Stocker
70	16 September 1890	Edwin Evarshall Elizabeth Mary O'Rourke	Edwin Marshall Elizabeth Mary ORourke 💍 1890/3814	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	32 31	Sivereargill Coldstream, North Sivereargill	4 weeks 10 years	House of Mrs. Eli. O'Rourke Coldstream	90/2715		16 September 1890	Rev Eu Walsh
71	22 September 1890	John McKay Alice Murray King	John McKay Jane Marion Davis 💍 1891/3420	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Laborer	24 22	Warainiva Warainiva	14 days 7 years	House of Mr. Philip King Warainiva	90/2730		22 September 1890	Rev Andrew Stevens
72	22 September 1890	Sinclair William Trotter Dorothea Douglas Muagye	Sinclair William Trotter Dorothea Douglass Manze 💍 1890/1515	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	42 27	Sivereargill East Sivereargill	6 months 2 years	House of Rev. S. Muagye	90/2727		22 September 1890	Rev Geo Lindsay
73	25 September 1890	Robert Learmouth Isabella Jemima Horseman	Robt Learmouth Isabella Jemima Wiseman 💍 1890/1516	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	36 28	Sivereargill Sivereargill	1 week 3 days	House of Rev. Geo. Lindsay	90/2728		25 September 1890	Rev Geo Lindsay

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).