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 1419

District of Rangiora Quarter ending 31 December 1890 Registrar George Buchan

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
633	2 October 1890	Archibald John Roper Land Caroline Mary Edith Crysell	Archibald John Roper Land Caroline Mary Edith Crysell 💍 1890/3207	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Dressmaker	23 19	Rangiora Cust	15 years 19 Years	Residence of Archibald Land Rangiora	90/3364	William Crysell Father	20 October 1890	Rev. E. Gillam
634	21 October 1890	Thomas Fraser Mary Fraser	Thomas Fraser Mary Fraser 💍 1890/3209	Bachelor Widow	Labourer not any	30 35	Rangiora Rangiora	3 years 3 years	Office of Registrar Rangiora	90/3366		21 October 1890	George Buchan Registrar
635	12 December 1890	Charles Henry Inglis Ada Maud Mannering	Charles Henry Inglis Ada Maud Mannering 💍 1890/3208	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant not any	30 26	Timaru Fernside	6 months 20 years	Church of England Timaru	90/3365		12 December 1890	Archdeacon Dudley
636	13 December 1890	William Dallas Bean Eliza Ann Milnthorpe	William Dallas Bean Thurza Anne Mulcock 💍 1890/3193	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster not any	25 24	Southbrook Flaxton	6 months 12 years	Church of England	90/3374		13 December 1890	Rev. F. R. Smood
637	17 December 1890	Walter Edlin Agnes Jemima Stevenson	Walter Edlin Agnes Jemima Stevenson 💍 1890/3194	Widower Spinster	Labourer not any	24 20	Woodend Kaiapoi	2 years 20 years	Residence of Eliza Jane Stevenson Kaiapoi	90/3375	Eliza Jane Stevenson Mother	17 December 1890	Rev. George Bond
638	24 December 1890	Henry Thomas Mary Kennedy	Henry Thomas Mary Kennedy 💍 1890/3206	Bachelor Widow	Farmer Farmer	48 47	Ashley Ashley	24 years 24 years	Residence of Mary Kennedy Ashley	90/3368		24 December 1890	Rev. Richard Tout
639	24 December 1890	George Hamson Mary Hulcheson	George Hancox Mary Hutcheson 💍 1890/3210 George Paton Mary Hall 💍 1890/2848 George Stapleton Mary McPherson 💍 1890/484 George Patterson Mary Dunncen 💍 1890/1601	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker not any	22 20	Rangiora Rangiora	16 years 3 years	Residence of John Horton Rangiora	90/3367	Gilbert Hulcheson father	24 December 1890	Rev. Alfred Peters
640	27 December 1890	Arthur Herbert Wright Catherine Tait	Arthur Herbert Wright Catherine Tait Robinson Banks 💍 1890/3205	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith not any	25 22	Ashley Loburn	23 years 22 years	Presbyterian Church Loburn	90/3362		27 December 1890	Rev. Richard Tout

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).