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 1300

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 31 December 1890 Registrar S.W. Woon

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
45	1 October 1890	Samuel Blight Agnes Amelia Haulan	Samuel Blight Agnes Amelia Hanlon 💍 1890/2962	Widower Spinster	Mailman	43 26	Wanganui Wanganui	11 yrs 2 yrs	In the residence of S. Blight, Victoria Avenue, Wanganui	90/3070	10 October 1890	C. A. Kirk, Roman Catholic
46	14 October 1890	Patrick Kavanagh Elizabeth Irwin	Patrick Cavanagh Elizabeth Irwin 💍 1890/2948	Widower Widow	Labourer	52 38	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days 3 days	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	90/3078	14 October 1890	S.W. Woon, Registrar
47	14 October 1890	Alexander McGregor Alice Handley	Alexander McGregor Alice Handley 💍 1890/2961	Bachelor Spinster	Dealer	39 22	Wanganui Nukumaru	3 yrs 10 yrs	In the residence of William Handley, Nukumaru	90/3069	14 October 1890	P. C. Cameron, Church of England
48	28 October 1890	Alfred George Valentine Elia Read	Alfred George Valentine Elia Hair 💍 1890/2964	Bachelor Widow	Painter	30 31	Wanganui Wanganui	2 yrs 15 yrs	In the Church of England, Wanganui	90/3072	28 October 1890	T. C. Tudor, Church of England
49	26 November 1890	Charles Pollard Good Fanny Bashford	Charles Pollard Lord Fanny Bashford 💍 1890/2965	Bachelor Spinster	Barman	25 20	Wanganui Wanganui	2 yrs 15 yrs	In the Church of England, Wanganui	90/3073	26 November 1890	P. C. Cameron, Church of England
50	29 November 1890	William Bell Patrick Isabella Maupley	William Bell Patrick Isabella Murphy 💍 1890/2963	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	27 22	Wanganui Wanganui	4 yrs 4 yrs	In the Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui	90/3071	29 November 1890	C. A. Kirk, Roman Catholic
51	2 December 1890	Matthew Russell Mary Nicol Hoey	Matthew Russell Mary Nicol Hoey 💍 1890/2945	Bachelor Spinster	Com. Trav.	25 29	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days 15 yrs	In Mr. Hoey's residence, Wicksteed Street, Wanganui	90/3075	2 December 1890	James Treadwell, Presbyterian
52	22 December 1890	Henry Harry Louisa Kind	Henry Lacey Louisa Lundberg 💍 1890/2944	Widower Widow	Labourer	47 31	Aramoho Wanganui	3 yrs 3 yrs	In the residence of Timothy Moon, Wanganui	90/3074	22 December 1890	H. R. Drewsburg, Wesleyan
53	22 December 1890	Henry Hole Wishart Margaret Johnston		Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	33 30	Wanganui Belmont	4 mos 20 yrs	In the Presbyterian Church, Wanganui	90/3076	22 December 1890	James Treadwell, Presbyterian
54	29 December 1890	Edmund Marston Taylor Sarah Coates Hogg	Edmond Marston McGorrery Sarah Coates Hogg 💍 1890/2947	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 23	Wanganui Wanganui	4 days 23 yrs	In the residence of George Hutchison, Wanganui	90/3077	29 December 1890	James Treadwell, Presbyterian

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).