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 834

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
284	21 July 1890	James Tarlton Milowen Bertha Brickton	James Turton Bertha Hickton 💍 1890/2140	Bachelor Spinster	Salvationist	49 36	Auckland Auckland	6 months 12 months	Salvation Army Barracks	90/1954		21 July 1890	Josiah Taylor, Salvationist
285	22 July 1890	George Hill Mary Ellen Gunston	George Hill Mary Allen 💍 1890/2145 George Hill Mary Eliza Hawkins 💍 1890/1860	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 21	Huntly Otahuhu	16 years 10 years	Dwelling of Mrs Susannah Allen, Church Rd	90/1964	Susannah Allen, mother	22 July 1890	Rev J Adams, Presbyterian
286	22 July 1890	John Charles Beaten Amelia Ann Patrick Dawson	John Charles Dawson Amelia Ann Rastrick 💍 1890/2233	Bachelor Widow	Dealer	38 32	Thames Thames	6 months 6 months	Registrar's Office	90/2030		23 July 1890	Regr of Marriages
287	23 July 1890	William Paley Genevieve Reilly	William Patey Genevieve OReilly 💍 1890/2142	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	30 19	Parnell Parnell	6 months 6 months	Church of St Benedict	90/1956	George Reilly, father	24 July 1890	Very Rev F C Downey, R Catholic
288	25 July 1890	Walter Page Sarah Jane Colvin	Walter Page Sarah Jane Colvin 💍 1890/2808	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	24 24	Auckland Auckland	6 months 10 years	Dwelling of Mr Thomas Colvin, Baker St	90/2771		25 July 1890	Rev F Smith, Methodist
289	28 July 1890	David Amos White Sarah Elizabeth Cleary	David Amos White Sarah Elizabeth Cleary 💍 1890/2332	Bachelor Spinster	Postman	19 19	Newton Newton	19 years 6 years	St Patrick's Cathedral	90/2067	Margaret Cleary, mother	28 July 1890	Rev F J O'Reilly, R Catholic
290	28 July 1890	Arthur Robert Face White Elizabeth Perry Pearson	Arthur Robert Pearson Elizabeth Perry 💍 1890/2235	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	21 18	Onehunga Newton	3 months 18 months	Registrar's Office	90/2032	Joseph Pearson, father	28 July 1890	Regr of Marriages

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 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).