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 1227

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 December 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
438	15 November 1890	Alexander Stuart Rutter Kenneth Louisa Marrin		Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger Spinster	29 24	Auckland Auckland	6 yrs 4 yrs	Church of St Matthew	90/3768	15 November 1890	Revd. D. Metcalfe Ch of England
439	15 November 1890	Frederick Adolphus Bartley Janet Webster	Frederick Adolphus Barkey Janet Shearer 💍 1890/2828	Bachelor Spinster	Draughtsman Spinster	38 34	Devonport Parnell	5 yrs 5 yrs	Dwelling of John Heather, St Georges Bay Rd	90/2938	14 November 1890	Revd. R. Carrier Presbyterian
440	17 November 1890	Richard William Pearson Eva Maud Ingram	Richard William Pearson Eva Maud Ingram 💍 1890/13	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman Spinster	25 22	Auckland Ponsonby	5 yrs 5 yrs	Registrars Office	90/2958	17 November 1890	Owen Lord Regr
441	19 November 1890	Finley Milford Hay Ada Clemens	Finlay Milford Hay Ada Clemens 💍 1890/2836	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Spinster	30 28	Alton Road Auckland	14 yrs 5 yrs	Dwelling of Henry Clemens, Upper Auckland	90/2889	20 November 1890	Revd. N. Birch Baptist
442	18 November 1890	John Frisby Preston Margaret Lena Burns	John Frisby Preston Margaret Lena Burnes 💍 1890/2857	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Spinster	32 22	Auckland Auckland	14 yrs 22 yrs	Dwelling of Thomas Preston, Mt Eden	90/2894	18 November 1890	Revd. R.J. Macnied Presbyterian
443	21 November 1890	Richard John Ridings White Margaret Annie Jury	Richard John Ridings White Margaret Annie Jury 💍 1890/2749	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Spinster	24 25	Eden Terrace Remuera	18 mos 18 mos	Church of St Mark	90/2880	21 November 1890	Revd. G. Richards Ch of England
444	20 November 1890	Albert Charles Flay Sarah McLean	Albert Charles Flay Sarah McLean 💍 1890/2860	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman Spinster	23 20	Auckland Auckland	3 mos 20 yrs	Dwelling of Miss McLean, Napier Street	90/2897	5 December 1890	Revd. R.J. Macnied Presbyterian
445	20 November 1890	William Ernest Bates Mabel Massey Bridges	William Ernest Huia Bates Mabel Massey Bridges 💍 1890/2909	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist Spinster	21 21	Ponsonby Auckland	21 yrs 5 yrs	Registrars Office	90/2959	20 November 1890	Owen Lord Regn

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).