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 1499

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1890 Registrar W. J. 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
334	17 November 1890	Patrick Nash Mary McInerney	Patrick Nash Mary McInerney 💍 1890/3335	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Employee	22 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 5 years	In St Josephs Cathedral	90/3591	17 November 1890	Revd P. Lynch, Roman Catholic Priest
335	17 November 1890	Henry William Wilson Eleanor Elizabeth Kinnig	Henry William Wilson Eleanor Elizabeth Kinvig 💍 1890/3354	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 years 28 years	Mornington Dunedin	2 years 25 years	In St Pauls Church	90/3611	17 November 1890	Ven Archdeacon Edwards, Church of England Minister
336	17 November 1890	Hector Mackenzie Isabella Gray	Hector McKenzie Isabella Gray 💍 1890/3351	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	32 years 26 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 8 years	In the house of Murdoch Mackenzie, Russell Street	90/3583	17 November 1890	Revd J. M. Fraser, Presbyterian Minister
337	18 November 1890	Samuel Alfred Glenister Constance Annie Mann	Samuel Alfred Glenister Constance Annie Mann 💍 1890/3316	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Fitter	25 years 21 years	South Dunedin Roslyn	6 months 3 weeks	In the house of John Ferguson, Kaikorai	90/3570	18 November 1890	Revd R. R. M. Sutherland, Presbyterian Minister
338	19 November 1890	William Henry Jackson Ledgerwood Mary French Bullock	William Henry Jackson Ledgerwood Mary French Ballock 💍 1890/3355	Bachelor Spinster	Presser	24 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	12 years 21 years	In St Pauls Church	90/3612	19 November 1890	Ven Archdeacon Edwards, Church of England Minister
339	20 November 1890	Charles McGregor Charlotte Thyne Espie	Charles McGregor Charlotte Thyne Espie 💍 1890/1720	Bachelor Spinster	Steward	25 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	12 years 23 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages	90/3654	20 November 1890	W. J. Hall, Registrar of Marriages
340	24 November 1890	Andrew Stevenson Mary Hally	Andrew Stevenson Mary Hally 💍 1890/3336	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 years 23 years	Roslyn Mornington	6 years 10 years	In St Josephs Cathedral	90/3592	24 November 1890	Revd P. Lynch, Roman Catholic Priest

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).