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 1365

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

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
98	17 December 1890	William Richardson Eliza Sarah Jane Frith	William Richardson Elizabeth Sarah Jane Frith 💍 1890/3086	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	36 over 21	Napier Napier	4 months 9 years	Residence of Mr John Cowan, Seapoint Road, Napier	90/3284		17 December 1890	Rev L. Douglas, Presbyterian
99	18 December 1890	William Parker Toria Ngarangi	William Parker Toia Ngarangi 💍 1890/3112	Bachelor Spinster	Receiver of Land Revenue	34 19	Napier Napuke	15 years 4 years	English Church at Taradale	90/3287	W. M. Broughton, Guardian of Toria Ngarangi	18 December 1890	Rev C. L. Tuke, Church of England
100	20 December 1890	William Mitchell Charlotte Johnston	William Mitchell Charlotte Johnston 💍 1890/3081	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	34 20	Herbertville Kait Kati	10 years 16 years	Presbyterian Tauranga, Church Napier	90/3279	Noble Johnston	20 December 1890	Rev J. G. Paterson, Presbyterian
101	22 December 1890	Henry Hasting King Frances Mary Algar	Henry Hastings King Frances Mary Algar 💍 1890/3083	Bachelor Spinster	Coachsmith	19 18	Napier Napier	6 years 18 years	Residence of Rev J. G. Paterson, Napier	90/3280	Frederick Algar, father of Frances Mary Algar; G. L. King, father of Henry Hasting King	22 December 1890	Rev J. G. Paterson, Presbyterian
102	22 December 1890	James Albert Holt Fanny Blackmore	James Albert Holt Fanny Blackmore 💍 1890/3072	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	23 18	Napier Napier	4 years 5 years	Residence of the Bride's father, Dalton, Napier	90/3269	John Thomas Blackmore, father of Fanny Blackmore	22 December 1890	Rev J. Parkinson, Church of England
103	22 December 1890	Oliver Dean Sarah Leach Holt	Oliver Dean Sarah Leach Holt 💍 1890/3075	Bachelor Spinster	Clergyman	34 26	Port Ahuriri Napier	8 months 26 years	Cathedral at Napier	90/3272		22 December 1890	Dean Hovell, Church of England
104	24 December 1890	Robert Hare Mary Brisbane	Robert Carruthers Mary Grant 💍 1890/3341 Robert Marr Mary McLeod 💍 1890/745	Bachelor Spinster	Cellarman	26 26	Napier Napier	3 years 3 years	Church of England at Clive	90/3260		24 December 1890	H. W. S. H. Hill, Church of England
105	27 December 1890	George Sherlock Ellen Elizabeth Crawley	George Sherlock Ellen Elizabeth Crawley 💍 1891/3820	Widower Spinster	Bottler Domestic	34 18	Napier Awatoto	6 years 16 years	Residence of Rev J. G. Paterson, Napier	91/1951	Henry Crawley, father of Ellen Elizabeth Crawley	27 December 1890	Rev J. G. Paterson, 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).