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 1293

District of Hawera Quarter ending 31 December 1890 Registrar John Finlay Marken

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
62	21 October 1890	Antone Hurliman Minnie Herd		Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Cook	31 19	Normanby Normanby	4 years 2 months	Roman Catholic Chapel, Hawera
63	23 October 1890	Robert Percy Bagot Bond Mary Syme	Robert Percy Bagot Bond Mary Syme 💍 1890/2888	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 21	Hawera Hawera	4 days 11 years	At the residence of the Bride's father, George Syme, High Street, Hawera	90/3063		23 October 1890	Rev Alexander MacLean
64	28 October 1890	Morris Henry Morris Edith Minnie Newland	Morris Henry Morris Edith Minnie Newland 💍 1890/2889	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	24 18	Hawera Hawera	3 days 5 months	At the residence of the Bride's mother, Regent Street, Hawera	90/3064	Frances Mary Newland, mother	28 October 1890	Rev J. N. Griffies
65	4 November 1890	Henry Waller Mary Hill	Henry Waller Mary Hill 💍 1890/3551 Alexander Black Mary Hill 💍 1890/3041	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 18	Ketemarae Normanby	10 years 6 months	At the residence of Charles Hunt, Ketemarae	90/3062	Mathew Hill, father	4 November 1890	Rev J. N. Griffies
66	4 November 1890	William Matheson Mere Ann Tiller formerly Hawaiki	William Matheson Mary Ann Tiller 💍 1890/2886	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	24 39	Ketemarae Keteonetea	5 years 14 years	At the residence of Charles Hunt, Ketemarae	90/3060		4 November 1890	Rev J. N. Griffies
67	11 November 1890	Charles Jabez Hall Amelia Ribeau	Charles Jabas Hall Amelia Libean 💍 1890/3414	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	28 27	Normanby Normanby	9 years 3 weeks	At the residence of Ernest Shrimpton, Normanby	90/3061		11 November 1890	Rev Alexander MacLean
68	24 November 1890	Richard Chamen Esse Kathleen Helen Sowerby	Richard Chamen Esse Kathleen Helen Sowerby 💍 1890/2954	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	29 25	Patea Normanby	3 years 11 months	Anglican Church, Patea	90/3066		24 November 1890	Rev Walter H. Kay
69	24 December 1890	John Phillips Susan Synnott	John Phillips Susan Synnott 💍 1890/2959	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Hand Servant	33 23	Hawera Hawera	8 years 8 years	Church of England, Hawera	90/3067		27 December 1890	Rev Walter H. Kay
70	31 December 1890	Robert Palmer Agnes Carmichael	Robert Palmer Agnes Carmichael 💍 1891/3327	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Waitress	32 25	Fraser Road near Hawera Hawera	4 years 2 years	At the residence of the Bride's father, James Carmichael, Lake Road, Hawera	91/250		31 December 1890	Rev Alexander MacLean

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).