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 1441

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1890 Registrar J. M. Parkerson

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
396	13 December 1890	Walter Louis Dixon Emily Louisa James	Walter Louis Dixon Emily Louisa James 💍 1890/3241	Bachelor Spinster	Manager of Rink	26 27	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 2 months	Registrar's Office	90/3485		13 December 1890	Registrar of Marriages J. W. Parkerson
397	13 December 1890	Thomas Wreaks Charlotte Amelia Hannah Stephens	Thomas Wreaks Charlotte Amelia Hannah Stephens 💍 1890/3246	Bachelor Spinster	Produce dealer	37 27	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 8 years	St. Mark's Church	90/3466		13 December 1890	New Church: Cholmondeley Church of England
398	15 December 1890	Francis William Wedderburn Henley Fanny Worsfold	Francis William Henley Fanney Worsfold 💍 1890/3531	Widower Spinster	Carrier Machinist	37 22	Christchurch Christchurch	16 years 2 years	House of Richard Offwood, Ferry Road	90/3425		15 December 1890	Rev. H. Irwin, Presbyterian
399	15 December 1890	Albert Coard Smith Mary Elizabeth Wilson	Albert Coard Smith Mary Elizabeth Milsom 💍 1890/1671	Bachelor Spinster	Master mariner	28 30	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	St. Andrew's Manse	90/3441		15 December 1890	Rev. G. Webster, Presbyterian
400	15 December 1890	Charles Monkman Margaret Hutchinson	Charles Henry Moukenau Margaret Hutchinson 💍 1890/1672	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer Domestic Servant	22 23	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 13 years	St. Andrew's Manse	90/3442		15 December 1890	Rev. G. Webster, Presbyterian
401	15 December 1890	Augustus Gray Elizabeth Osburn	Augustus May Elizabeth Osburn 💍 1890/1745	Bachelor Spinster	Barman	22 23	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 23 years	St. Peter's Church, Woolston	90/3418		15 December 1890	Rev. H. Irwin, Presbyterian
402	17 December 1890	James Watson McLaren Annie Robson Barlow	James Whitson McLaren Annie Robson Barlow 💍 1890/1677	Bachelor Spinster	Presser Dressmaker	26 21	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 5 years	Trinity Church, Manchester St.	90/3396		17 December 1890	Rev. J. Hoatson, Congregational
403	18 December 1890	George Trapnell Rhoda Laura Smith	George Trapnell Rhoda Laura Smith 💍 1890/1731	Bachelor Spinster	Mill manager	26 20	Christchurch Christchurch	18 months 5 months	St. Michael's Church	90/3427	Mary Elizth. Smith, mother	18 December 1890	Rev. W. Harper, Church of England

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).