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 838

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 September 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
312	12 August 1890	Vincent Cabral Pacheco Charlotte Brett Spinley	Vincent Cabrall Charlotte Brott 💍 1890/2222	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	33 31	Pukipuki Cod's Creek	2 mos 1 month	Registrar's Office	90/2042		12 August 1890	Registrar of Marriages
313	12 August 1890	Michael O'Neill Pacheco Mary Ellen Dargaville	Michael O'Neill Mary Ellen Danzey 💍 1890/2193	Bachelor Spinster	Foreman	24 23	Newton Newton	24 yrs 23 yrs	Church of St Benedict's	90/2007		12 August 1890	Rev. R. Catholic
314	12 August 1890	William James Pacheco Isabella Sherry Spinley		Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 24	Alexandra Parnell	23 yrs 22½ yrs	Dwelling of Mrs. Holmes, Sherriff St, Garfield	90/1970		12 August 1890	Rev. J. Simmons, Wesleyan
315	13 August 1890	James Edward Hammond Mary Annie Braithwaite	James Heyward Hammond Mary Annie Braithwaite 💍 1890/2178	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Officer	27 28	Auckland Auckland	27 yrs 28 yrs	Vernell Church of St Sepulchre, Kyber Pass	90/2016		13 August 1890	Rev. B. J. Dudley, Ch. of England
316	13 August 1890	Richard Garrett Idopland Miriam Letitia Blum	Richard Harris Hopkins Miriam Letitia Odlum 💍 1890/2809	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	30 20	Ponsonby Ponsonby	5 yrs 20 yrs	Dwelling of John Jesse, Palmerston North	90/2773	John Jesse, Father	13 August 1890	Rev. J. F. Robertson, Presbyterian
317	13 August 1890	George Mathewson Nancy Foley	George Matthews Nancy Foley 💍 1890/2223	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	40 46	Otahuhu Otahuhu	3 yrs 12 yrs	Registrar's Office, Auckland	90/2043		13 August 1890	Registrar of Marriages
318	14 August 1890	John Ryan Edith Brett	John Ryan Edith Brett 💍 1890/2334	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	24 23	Auckland Wellington	14 yrs 23 yrs	St Patrick's Cathedral	90/2069		14 August 1890	Rev. J. Corbett, R. Catholic

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).