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 1498

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
327	7 November 1890	Edmund Robert Bowler Mary Ethel Hepburn	Edmund Robert Bowler Mary Ethel Hepburn 💍 1890/1748	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	24 years 22 years	Roslyn Roslyn	12 years 1 year	In the house of Mrs Margaret Hepburn	90/3634	7 November 1890	Revd Dr Stuard, Presbyterian Minister
328	8 November 1890	Robert McLean Louisa Ada Bryant	Robert McLean Louisa Ada Bryant 💍 1890/3344	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 years 21 years	Caversham Caversham	16 years 6 years	In the house of Thomas Bryant	90/3599	8 November 1890	Revd G. J. Spence, Wesleyan Minister
329	11 November 1890	George Elder Brown Elizabeth Park	George Elder Brown Elizabeth Park 💍 1890/3347	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	30 years 23 years	Dunedin Caversham	10 years 12 years	In the house of Mrs Annie Park	90/3578	11 November 1890	Revd D. Dutton, Presbyterian Minister
330	14 November 1890	Henry Bennett Elizabeth Cooper Armit	Henry Bennett Elizabeth Cooper Armit 💍 1890/1719	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Fitter	24 years 23 years	Roslyn Roslyn	8 years 14 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages	90/3653	14 November 1890	W. J. Hall, Registrar of Marriages
331	14 November 1890	Hugh Williams McColl Agnes Smilie Anderson	Hugh William McColl Agnes Smilie Anderson 💍 1890/3315	Bachelor Spinster	Tram driver	21 years 22 years	Roslyn Roslyn	8 years 2 years	In the house of Robert Rose Mackay Sutherland	90/3569	14 November 1890	Revd R. R. Sutherland, Presbyterian Minister
332	15 November 1890	Alexander Townley Mary Jane Campbell	Alexander Townley Mary Jane Campbell 💍 1890/3512 Alexander McLeod Jane Campbell 💍 1890/2560	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 years 21 years	Dunedin Green Island	5 days 14 years	In the house of John Campbell	90/3786	15 November 1890	Revd Dr Watt, Presbyterian Minister
333	15 November 1890	Ernest James Hogg Caroline Yates	Ernest James Hogg Caroline Yates 💍 1890/3348	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	31 years 24 years	Caversham Caversham	4 days 15 years	In the house of Thomas Yates	90/3579	15 November 1890	Revd D. Dutton, 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).