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 1494

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1880 Registrar William Joseph Hall

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
300	14 October 1890	Abel Thompson Elizabeth Matchett	Abel Thompson Elizabeth Matchett 💍 1890/3511	Bachelor Spinster	miner	21 years 18 years	Green Island Green Island	11 years 5 years	In the house of James Matchett	90/3785	James Matchett, father of minor	14 October 1890	Revd Dr Watt, Presbyterian Minister
301	14 October 1890	Christopher Metcalf Anna Steadman	Christopher Metcalf Anna Steadman 💍 1890/3333	Bachelor Spinster	contractor	29 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	28 years 1 year	In St Josephs Cathedral	90/3589		14 October 1890	Revd P Lynch, Roman Catholic Priest
302	14 October 1890	John Challis Margaret Jackson	John Challis Margaret Jackson 💍 1890/1766	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	24 years 23 years	Peninsula Kaikorai Valley	24 years 23 years	In Knox Church	90/3628		14 October 1890	Revd Dr Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
303	15 October 1890	John McLellan Maria Dunne	John McLellan Maria Dunne 💍 1890/3319	Bachelor Spinster	Boat Builder	28 years 25 years	Dunedin Kensington	26 years 2 months	In the house of Revd George Hunt.	90/3573		15 October 1890	Revd G Hunt, Roman Catholic Priest
304	16 October 1890	Arthur Alexander McKinnon Ellen Newey	Arthur Alexander McKinnon Ellen Newey 💍 1890/3510	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	29 years 19 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 5 months	In St Matthews Church	90/3784	Catherine Newey, mother of Minor	16 October 1890	Revd A C Yorke, Church of England Minister
305	16 October 1890	John Rossiter Agnes Frances Rosina Scott	John Rossiter Agnes Florence Rosina Scott 💍 1890/1767	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	29 years 20 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 8 months	In Knox Church	90/3629	George Scott, father of minor	16 October 1890	Revd Dr Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
306	17 October 1890	Sydney Samuel Tickery Ellen Eyre	Sydney Samuel Vickery Ellen Eyre 💍 1890/3373	Widower Spinster	Saddler	27 years 26 years	Dunedin Dunedin	4 years 26 years	In St Pauls Church	90/3609		17 October 1890	Ven Archdeacon Edwards, Church of England Minister

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).