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 1362

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 December 1890 Registrar J. S. Jago

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
82	14 October 1890	Frank Gillan Birdling Charlotte Elizabeth Douglas	Frank Gillam Birdling Charlotte Elizabeth Douglas 💍 1890/3084	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Waitress	25 23	Hampden Napier	16 mths 13 mths	Office of the Registrar of Marriages Napier	90/3281		14 October 1890	Registrar J. J. Jago
83	17 October 1890	Thomas Martin Wade Ellen Frances Millar		Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	30 27	Petane Petane	4 years 4 years	Presbyterian Church, Napier (not sold see letter alt?)	90/3266		17 October 1890	Rev J. F. Paterson (Presbyterian)
84	24 October 1890	Joseph Nelson Roulston Emily Sarah Lugden	Joseph Nelson Roulston Emily Sarah Sugden 💍 1890/3092	Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper Makatoku	30 24	Napier Makatoku	3 mths 5 years at Napier Danvirke	Church of England, Danvirke	90/3267		24 October 1890	Rev J. Parkinson (Church of England)
85	25 October 1890	William Masterson Wilson Sophia Russell	William Masterson Sophia Wilson Russell 💍 1890/3079	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	23 20	Napier Napier	2 1/2 years 18 mths	Presbyterian Church, Napier	90/3277	Robert Russell Father of Sophia Wilson Russell	25 October 1890	Rev J. F. Paterson (Presbyterian)
86	4 November 1890	Patrick Ryan Catherine Barry	Patrick Lyne Catherine Barry 💍 1890/3076	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Domestic	28 22	Port Ahuriri Napier	6 years 4 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Napier	90/3273		4 November 1890	Father Grogan (Roman Catholic Priest)
87	4 November 1890	David Anderson Emily White	David Anderson Emily White 💍 1890/3527 Carl Anderson Annie White 💍 1891/722	Widower Widow	Wheelwright Domestic	56 48	Napier Napier	3 years 2 years	Residence of John Christie, Shakespeare Road, Napier	90/3283		4 November 1890	Rev L. Douglas (Presbyterian)
88	8 November 1890	Isaac Arthur Winter Nelson Waring Watkins	Isaac Arthur Winter Helen Waring Watkins 💍 1890/3073	Bachelor Spinster	Station manager	34 22	Patoka Napier	18 mths 3 mths	The Cathedral, Napier	90/3270		8 November 1890	Dean Hovell (Church of England)
89	8 November 1890	George Alfred Compton Edith Jane Algar	George Alfred Compton Edith Jane Algar 💍 1890/3077	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter	22 24	Napier Napier	8 years 4 years	Residence of Mr F. Algar, Tennyson St, Napier	90/3275		8 November 1890	Rev D. Mc Nicoll (Wesleyan)

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).