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 1234

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 December 1890

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
492	22 December 1890	Charles George Brookes Mary Elizabeth McDonald	Charles George Brookes Mary Elizabeth McDonald 💍 1890/2824	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	21 19	Parsonage Newmarket	2 1/2 years 10 years	Dwelling of Charles Scott, Newmarket	90/2934		22 December 1890	Rev. S. B. Morison, Presbyterian
493	22 December 1890	William Henry Jones Jessie Emily Colenso	William Henry Jones Jepie Emily Cole 💍 1891/3384 William Henry Jones Constance Matilda Collard 💍 1890/1134	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	27 27	Auckland Auckland	5 years 6 years	Church of St. Thomas, Auckland	91/117		22 December 1890	Rev. W. M. Du Rieu, Ch. of England
494	22 December 1890	Harry Henderson Madeline Vanderspeck	Harry Hunter Madeline Van der Spek 💍 1890/2813	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	23 21	Whangapoua Coromandel	1 year 20 years	Dwelling of Saints, Auckland	90/2924		22 December 1890	Rev. C. W. Nelson, Ch. of England
495	22 December 1890	Victor Laachonen Louisa Bennett	Victor Laaksonen Louisa Bennett 💍 1890/1557	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	28 21	Thames Auckland	7 years 3 1/2 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	90/2972		22 December 1890	James Lord, Regr.
496	22 December 1890	William Cobourne Mary Crawford Paul Taylor	William Cobourne Mary Crawford Paul Taylor 💍 1890/2817	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 30	Waiuku Auckland	25 years 22 years	St. Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland	90/2928		22 December 1890	Rev. J. C. Downey, R. Catholic
497	22 December 1890	William Hunter Rosetta Jones	William Hunter Rosetta Jones 💍 1890/3471	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	28 18	Whangapoua Coromandel	10 months 1 year	Church of St. Matthew, Auckland	90/3769	Jane Jones, mother	22 December 1890	Rev. W. Tebbs, Ch. of England
498	23 December 1890	John Machinlay Eliza Jane Smith	John MacKinley Eliza Jane Smith 💍 1890/2833	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	32 32	Auckland Devonport	3 months 7 years	Dwelling of Hugh Johnston, Newmarket	90/2921		23 December 1890	Rev. E. Best, Wesleyan
499	23 December 1890	Charles Langdale Louisa Heath	Charles Langdale Louisa Heath Tozer 💍 1890/2761	Bachelor Spinster	Journeyman	34 30	Newton Newton	4 years 7 years	Methodist Church, Alexandra St.	90/2872		23 December 1890	Rev. R. J. Smith, P. Methodist

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).