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 1573

District of Riverton Quarter ending 31 December 1890 Registrar Alexr Millar

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
299	31 October 1890	Stephen Watson Emily Guise	Stephen Watson Junr Emily Guise 💍 1890/1780	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 18	The Narrows, Riverton Wild Bush, Riverton	25 years 18 years	Office of Registrar of Marriage, Riverton	90/3748	Elizabeth Guise, Mother of Emily Guise	31 October 1890	Alexr Esqr Registrar, Riverton
300	1 November 1890	John Hughes Margaret Robrader	John Hughes Mary Fosbender 💍 1890/3524	Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper	39 27	Riverton Riverton	3 days 4 days	Roman Catholic Church, Riverton	90/3749		1 November 1890	Father Vereker (Roman Catholic)
301	4 November 1890	John McNaughton Elizabeth Jane James	John McNaughton Elizabeth Jane James 💍 1890/1781	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 25	Thornbury Wreys Bush	23 years 25 years	In the House of Richard James, Wreys Bush	90/3750		4 November 1890	Revd S. B. Fellows (Wesleyan)
302	19 November 1890	William Watson Henrietta Hall	William Watson Henrietta Hall 💍 1890/3525	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 20	Riverton Riverton	26 years 20 years	In the house of Revd Thos Neave, Riverton	90/3753		19 November 1890	Revd Thos Neave (Presbyterian)
303	19 November 1890	John George McLean Isabella Blackstock	John George McLean Isabella Blackstock 💍 1890/1784	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Manager	40 30	Paihi Jacobs River	40 days 11 years	In the House of Wm Blackstock, Jacobs River	90/3752		19 November 1890	Revd Thos Neave (Presbyterian)
304	24 December 1890	Edward Wm Pearsey Ann Hunt	Edward William Pearsey Ann Hunt 💍 1890/1782	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 25	Colac Bay Riverton	7 months 25 years	In the House of Solomon Hunt, South Riverton	90/3751	Solomon Hunt, Aunt	24 December 1890	Revd S. B. Fellows (Wesleyan)
305	31 December 1890	Charles Samuel Stevens Marion Drew	Charles Samuel Stevens Marion Frew 💍 1891/3763	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 26	Nightcaps near Nightcaps	9 years 9 years	In the House of David Drew, near Nightcaps	91/917		31 December 1890	Revd S. B. Fellows (Wesleyan)

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).