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 1496

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
313	27 October 1890	Edwin Chetwin Isabella McFarlane	Edwin Chetwin Isabella McFarlane 💍 1890/3330	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	22 years 18 years	South Dunedin Dunedin	13 years 2 years	In the house of Andrew Simpson McFarlane Walker Street	90/3586	Andrew Simpson McFarlane father of minor	27 October 1890	Revd W Ready Bible Christian Minister
314	29 October 1890	Charles Frederick Edgar Mary Ann Christie	Charles Frederick Edgar Mary Ann Christie 💍 1890/3343	Widower Spinster	Warehouseman	30 years 24 years	Dunedin Dunedin	26 years 23 years	In the Trinity Church Dunedin	90/3598		29 October 1890	Revd W Baumber Wesleyan Minister
315	29 October 1890	John Todd Smith Elizabeth Erskine Cooke	John Todd Smitt Elizabeth Erskine Corke 💍 1890/1768	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	50 years 37 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 2 months	In the house of John Cooke Maitland Street	90/3630		29 October 1890	Revd Dr Stuart Presbyterian Minister
316	31 October 1890	Duncan Cameron Elizabeth Robertshaw	Duncan Cameron Elizabeth Robertshaw 💍 1890/3363	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	30 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	19 years 23 years	In the house of Matthew Robertshaw Elm Row	90/3601		31 October 1890	Revd W Saunders Congregational Minister
317	1 November 1890	William Blackwood Junr Julia Ann Elizabeth Edmonds	William Blackwood Junr Julia Ann Elizabeth Edmonds 💍 1890/3311	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	22 years 20 years	Caversham South Dunedin	22 years 6 years	In the house of William Blackwood	90/3566	Fanny Edmonds mother of minor	1 November 1890	Revd J Y Hinton Baptist Minister
318	3 November 1890	Edward William Merry Ellen Bird Harkness Russell	Edward William Merry Ellen Aird Harking Russell 💍 1890/3338	Bachelor Spinster	Glazier	27 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	27 years 22 years	In All Saints Church Dunedin	90/3575		3 November 1890	Revd A R Fitchett Church of England Minister
319	4 November 1890	Thomas Fitzpatrick Sarah Martha Grengrove	Thomas Fitzpatrick Sarah Martha Trengrove 💍 1890/1711	Bachelor Spinster	Artilleryman	36 years 19 years	South Dunedin Dunedin	6 years 17 years	In Knox Church Dunedin	90/3651	Sarah Fletcher mother of minor	4 November 1890	Revd Dr Stuart Presbyterian 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).