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 1221

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 December 1890 Registrar Owen Lord

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
395	11 October 1890	Joseph Murray Hannah Orr		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Spinster	36 26	Matakohe Matakohe	3 years 14 years	The Tabernacle at Auckland	90/2884		11 October 1890	Rev. M. Birch, Baptist
396	11 October 1890	James Irvine Kate Edgar	James Irvine Hedley Kate Edgar 💍 1890/2764	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Spinster	24 23	Onehunga Onehunga	2 years 8 months	Dwelling of Queen St. Auckland	90/2873		11 October 1890	Rev. J. E. Mulgan, Ch. of England
397	13 October 1890	James Gordon Miller Helena Brown	James Gordon Miller Helena Brown Bathgate 💍 1890/3785	Bachelor Spinster	Iron Monger Spinster	25 26	Mt. Roskill Mt. Roskill	4 years 4 years	St. David's Manse, Mt. Eden	90/2914		13 October 1890	Rev. R. J. West, Presbyterian
398	13 October 1890	Hyman Hyams Mary (Miriam) Lewis	Hyman Hyams Mary Miriam Lewis 💍 1890/2917	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman Spinster	24 25	Wellington Auckland	12 years 18 years	The Synagogue, Princess St. Auckland	90/2945		13 October 1890	Rev. J. A. Goldstein, Jewish Rabbi
399	13 October 1890	Arthur Percy Bowring Elizabeth Roberta Laishley	Arthur Percy Bowring Elizabeth Robina Laird 💍 1890/2780	Bachelor Spinster	Upholsterer Spinster	20 21	Auckland Ponsonby	20 years 1 year	All Saints Church, Ponsonby	90/2863	Alfred Bowring, Father	13 October 1890	Rev. M. C. Alden, Ch. of England
400	14 October 1890	Henry Laman Smith Elizabeth Wallace	Henry Laman Smith Elizabeth Wallace 💍 1890/2743	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Spinster	34 19	Mt. Albert Mt. Albert	10 years 19 years	Dwelling of Thomas Wallace, Mt. Albert	90/2866	Thomas Wallace, Father	14 October 1890	Rev. R. Sommerville, Presbyterian
401	15 October 1890	Charles Henry Kalan Isabella Munro	Charles Henry Sexton Isabella Munro 💍 1890/2915	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Spinster	25 24	Surrey Hills Great North Road, Auckland	25 years 24 years	Dwelling of John Munro, Great North Road, Auckland	90/2943	John Munro, Father	15 October 1890	Rev. W. F. Lewis, Congregationalist

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 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).