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 1373

District of Wairau Quarter ending 31 December 1890 Registrar John James Lundsberg White

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
33	20 October 1890	Harry Hillman Florence Edith Elvira Clark	Harry Hillman Florence Edith Elvira Clark 💍 1890/3098	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	27 years 20 years	Renwicktown Cowley, Blenheim	4 years 20 years	The Church of the Nativity, Blenheim	90/3297	Henry Galling Clark, Father	20 October 1890	Rev. J. S. Grace
34	27 October 1890	Morton Reigles Store Clark Katie Maria Dodson	Morton Reigels Stow Clark Katie Maria Dodson 💍 1890/3099	Bachelor Spinster	Mercantile Clerk	27 years 21 years	Temporary Blenheim Wellington	27 years 27 years	The Church of the Nativity, Blenheim	90/3298		27 October 1890	Rev. J. S. Grace
35	9 November 1890	Frederick Hale Mary Elizabeth Gresham	Frederick Hale Mary Elizabeth Gresham 💍 1890/3101	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	25 years 22 years	Walter Street, Blenheim Evendon Street, Blenheim	4 years 6 months 22 years	Roman Catholic Church, Blenheim	90/3300		9 November 1890	Rev. W. J. Lewis
36	14 November 1890	John Thomas Williams Mary Anne Leonard	John Thomas Williams Mary Anne Leonard 💍 1890/3102	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic Servant	22 years 23 years	South St. Blenheim Weld St. Blenheim	2 years 9 years	Roman Catholic Church, Blenheim	90/3301		14 November 1890	Rev. W. J. Lewis
37	4 December 1890	Samuel Alfred Frederick Morgan Maria Reynolds	Samuel Alfred Frederic Morgan Maria Reynolds 💍 1890/3097	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	21 years 18 years	Grove Road, Blenheim Grove Road, Blenheim	3 years 1 week	The House of Mr. Harry Dunstall, Grove Road, Blenheim	90/3296	John Reynolds, Father	4 December 1890	Rev. Henry Bull
38	6 December 1890	David Lawson Margaret Wemyss	David Lawson Margaret Wemyss 💍 1890/3103	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Dressmaker	28 years 24 years	Temporary Blenheim Usual Wellington	5 days 23 years	The House of Mr. David Wemyss, Blenheim	90/3302		6 December 1890	Rev. W. O. Roll
39	8 December 1890	Charles Henry Miller Mary Elizabeth Eves	Charles Henry Miller Mary Elizabeth Eves 💍 1890/3095	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser	20 years 23 years	Spring Creek Renwick Town	4 years 23 years	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim	90/3294	John Miller, Father	8 December 1890	Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim
40	13 December 1890	Charles Matthews Margaret March	Charles Matthews Margaret March 💍 1890/3096	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 years 24 years	Spring Creek Marlborough Town	25 years 24 years	The Church of England, Marlborough Town	90/3295		13 December 1890	Rev. Geo. F. Grace

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).