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 1220

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
388	4 October 1890	Charles Alfred Hall David Maud		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 21	Hamilton Auckland	2 years 2 years	Bishops Private Chapel, Bishops Court	90/2922	4 October 1890	Right Revd M. Cowie, Bishop
389	7 October 1890	Robert Henbridge Agnes Gertrude Griffiths	Robert Stembridge Agnes Gertrude Griffiths 💍 1890/2920	Widower Spinster	Setter	50 45	Mahutu Auckland	25 years 4 years	Registrars Office, Auckland	90/2948	7 October 1890	J. Owen Lord, Registrar
390	8 October 1890	John Younghusband Edith Mildred Wood	John Young Husband Edith Mildred Wood 💍 1890/2831	Widower Spinster	Merchant	35 21	Napier Auckland	4 years 10 years	Dwelling of Hon. Edwd Wood, North Shore	90/2919	8 October 1890	Revd Mr. Catter, Wesleyan
391	8 October 1890	Robert Archibald Armstrong Mary Ann Mefor	Robert Archibald Armstrong Mary Ann Mason 💍 1890/2898	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	30 27	Waipara Waipara	13 months 8 months	Registrars Office, Napier	90/2949	8 October 1890	J. Owen Lord, Registrar
392	9 October 1890	Thomas William Jones Harriet Newman	Thomas William Jones Harriett Newman Hatfield 💍 1890/2919 Thomas Slater Jones Harriet Perrow 💍 1891/3286	Bachelor Widow	Dairyman	34 37	Auckland Auckland	7 years 10 years	Dwelling of John Watson, Northcote	90/2947	9 October 1890	Revd R. Mc. Cullum, Presbyterian
393	9 October 1890	John Charles Draffin Julia Costello	John Charles Draffin Julia Costello 💍 1890/2770	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	23 24	Surrey Hills Mt Eden	3 years 4 months	Church of St. Benedict	90/2853	9 October 1890	Revd J. C. Downes, R. Catholic
394	10 October 1890	William Archibald Mc. Naughton Margaret Smith	William Archibald McNaughton Margaret Smith 💍 1890/3468	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	29 30	Auckland Auckland	29 years 17 years	Church of St. Matthew at Auckland	90/3766	10 October 1890	Revd W. Tebbs, Ch 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).