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 1514

District of East Taieri Quarter ending 31 December 1890 Registrar D. Macleod

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
11	3 October 1890	Alexander McAllan Jane McEwan	Alexander McAllan Jane McEwan 💍 1890/1810	Bachelor Spinster	Coalminer	27 22	Fairfield Fairfield	2 years 14 years	House of John McEwan of Fairfield	90/3677		3 October 1890	Rev. Joseph Sharp, Primitive Methodist
12	6 October 1890	Charles Grant Mary Carmichael	Charles Grant Mary Carmichael 💍 1890/1716	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 28	North Taieri North Taieri	3 days 28 years	House of Malcolm Carmichael North Taieri	90/3673		10 October 1890	Rev. Wm Will, Presbyterian
13	6 November 1890	John Adam Callander Mary Elizabeth Wells	John Adam Callander Mary Elizabeth Wells 💍 1890/1717	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	39 39	Spring Bank View East Taieri Spring Bank View East Taieri	32 years 3 days	House of Mrs Agnes Callander of Spring Bank	90/3674		6 November 1890	Rev. Wm Will, Presbyterian
14	10 November 1890	Andrew Bringans Ann Keen	Andrew Bringans Ann Keen 💍 1890/1713	Bachelor Spinster	Factory Worker	25 21	Mosgiel Mosgiel Bush	6 years 6 years	House of Alexander Bringans of Mosgiel	90/3670		10 November 1890	Rev. J. M. McKerrow, Presbyterian
15	8 December 1890	George Robert Miller Elizabeth Jane Daylor	George Robert Millar Elizabeth Jane Taylor 💍 1890/1794	Bachelor Spinster	Tram Driver	26 26	Roslyn Mosgiel Bush	26 years 26 years	House of William Daylor of Mosgiel Bush	90/3675		8 December 1890	Rev. Wm Will, Dunedin, Presbyterian
16	12 December 1890	Alexander Shaw Margaret Williamson Smith	Alexander Shaw Margaret Williamson Smith 💍 1890/1714	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	33 25	Mosgiel Mosgiel	3 days 5 years	House of William Smith of Mosgiel	90/3671		12 December 1890	Rev. J. M. Sutherland, Presbyterian
17	13 December 1890	William Stewart Sarah Jane McCutcheon	William Stewart Sarah Jane McCutcheon 💍 1890/1805	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 20	East Taieri East Taieri	3 years 14 years	House of Hugh McCutcheon of East Taieri	90/3676		13 December 1890	Rev. Wm Will, Presbyterian
18	24 December 1890	Harry Clough Blundell Alice Rosina Milner	Harry Clough Blundell Alice Rosina Milner 💍 1891/3735	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 24	North Taieri North Taieri	4 days 24 years	House of Ralph Milner North Taieri	90/840		24 December 1890	Rev. J. M. Sutherland, Presbyterian
19	30 December 1890	David Dunlop Margaret Thomson	David Dunlop Margaret Thomson 💍 1890/1715	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 19	Mullocky Gully Mullocky Gully	9 years 5 years	Presbyterian Church North Taieri	90/3672	Robert Thomson, Father	30 December 1890	Rev. J. M. Sutherland, Presbyterian

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).