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 1500

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1890 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
341	24 November 1890	Henry Blatch Watts Lavinia Emma Sarney	Henry Blatch Watts Lavinia Emma Sarney 💍 1890/3328	Bachelor Spinster	Dairyman	25 years 30 years	Dunedin Dunedin	8 years 16 years	In the Presbyterian Church York Place	90/3584		24 November 1890	Revd J. M. Fraser Presbyterian Minister
342	25 November 1890	Charles King Little Sarah Elizabeth Dick	Charles King Sittle Sarah Elizabeth Dick 💍 1890/1749	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	37 years 20 years	Dunedin Dunedin	12 years 20 years	In Knox Church Dunedin	90/3635	Matilda Dick mother of minor	25 November 1890	Revd Dr Stuart Presbyterian Minister
343	26 November 1890	James John Brown Catherine Campbell Neil	James John Brown Catherine Campbell Neil 💍 1890/1750	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith	24 years 19 years	Dunedin South Dunedin	24 years 13 years	In the house of Archibald Neil	90/3636	Archibald Neil father of minor	26 November 1890	Revd Dr Stuart Presbyterian Minister
344	27 November 1890	Fleming Lawrence Junr Belinda Sophia Hellyer	Fleming Laurenson Belinda Sophia Hellyer 💍 1890/3329	Bachelor Spinster	Clothier	24 years 20 years	Dunedin Caversham	3 days 20 years	In St Peters Church	90/3585	Alfred Hellyer father of minor	27 November 1890	Revd F. E. Watson Church of England Minister
345	27 November 1890	Alexander Brooke Ellen Jackson	Alexander Brooke Ellen Jackson 💍 1890/1751	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	25 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	15 years 21 years	In Knox Church	90/3637		27 November 1890	Revd Dr Stuart Presbyterian Minister
346	27 November 1890	Peter Cruickshank Grant Margaret Barden	Peter Cruickshank Grant Margaret Barden 💍 1890/1721	Bachelor Widow	Contractor	46 years 61 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages	90/3655		27 November 1890	W. J. Hall Registrar of Marriages
347	27 November 1890	George Henry Barnett Elizabeth Ann Evans	George Henry Barnett Elizabeth Ann Evans 💍 1890/3359	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	25 years 26 years	Dunedin North East Valley	4 years 17 years	In the Presbyterian Church North East Valley	90/3616		27 November 1890	Revd D. Borrie 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).