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 1265

District of Gisborne Quarter ending 31 December 1890 Registrar A. Graham Lord

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
624	11 November 1890	William Arthur Oneara Annie Isabel Langford	William Arthur O'Meara Annie Isabel Langford 💍 1890/2939	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	28 26	North Gisborne, Poverty Bay Gisborne, Poverty Bay	18 years 17 years	1. Roman Catholic Church Gisborne, 2. Holy Trinity Church Gisborne	90/3020		11 November 1890	1. Rev Joseph P. Keloe, 2. Rev Allen L. Gardiner
625	25 November 1890	David Kirkpatrick Jessie McKenzie	David Kirkpatrick Jessie McKenzie 💍 1890/2940	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	28 22	Makaraka, Poverty Bay Ormond, Poverty Bay	7 years About 18 years at Ormond	The residence of Mr Alexander McKenzie	90/3021		25 November 1890	Rev Robert Ryburn
626	13 December 1890	Watene Tapu te Ranji Miria Tapu te Ranji		Bachelor, Aborijinal Native Spinster, Aborijinal Native		22 19	Paparatu, Poverty Bay Paparatu, Poverty Bay	1 year 4 months at Tolaga Bay	The Maori Church at Tolaga Bay	see memo	see memo Mother of all? Minor.	13 December 1890	The Ven. W. L. Williams
627	16 December 1890	James Smith Williamson Laura Pitcher	James Smith Williamson Laura E Pitcher 💍 1890/3834	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic Servant	31 29	Whakatupoko, Poverty Bay Gisborne, Poverty Bay	1 year 6 years	The residence of Mr Charles Francis at Whakatupoko	90/3019		16 December 1890	Rev Josiah Ward
628	16 December 1890	John George Alexander Johnstone Sarah Catherine Greene	George John Alexander Johnstone Sarah Catherine Greene 💍 1890/2941	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 21	Makaraka, Poverty Bay Matanhero, Poverty Bay	8 years 21 years at Matanhero	The dwelling of Mr W. S. Greene at Matanhero	90/3022		16 December 1890	Rev Robert M. Ryburn
629	29 December 1890	Leslie Hartley McHardy Mary Ann McKenzie	Leslie Harling McHardy Mary Ann McKenzie 💍 1891/3424	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	27 19	Ormond, Poverty Bay Ormond, Poverty Bay	6 days 19 years at Ormond	The residence of Mr Alexander McKenzie at Ormond	90/204		29 December 1890	Rev Robert M. Ryburn

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).