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 707

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 1890 Registrar M. R. Aire Reg

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
165	19 May 1890	Thomas Yardley Catherine Flynn	Thomas Yardley Catherine Flynn 💍 1890/1988	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	22 24	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 10 years	In St. Josephs Cathedral	90/1731	19 May 1890	Revd P. Lynch, Roman Catholic Priest
166	19 May 1890	John Riddle Mary Margaret Hankin	John Riddle Mary Margaret Hankin 💍 1890/1980	Widower Spinster	Tweed Mill man	37 32	Roslyn Maori Hill	10 years 6 months	In the house of Edwin Mantz	90/1724	19 May 1890	Revd R. R. M. Sutherland, Presbyterian Minister
167	20 May 1890	McGregor Bonar Wright Agnes Dann	McGregor Bonan Wright Agnes Dann 💍 1890/1944	Bachelor Spinster	Carver & Builder	28 21	Dunedin Christchurch	4 years 21 years	In St. Lukes Church, Christchurch	90/1541	20 May 1890	Ven. Archdeacon Lingard, Church of England Minister
168	21 May 1890	William Joseph Roebuck Janet Phillis Thompson	William Joseph Roebuck Janet Phillis Thompson 💍 1890/3568	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	26 22	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 20 years	In St. Peters Church, Caversham	90/1743	21 May 1890	Revd F. E. Watson, Church of England Minister
169	21 May 1890	George Sydney Prosser Rachel Kirk	George Sydney Prosser Rachel Kirk 💍 1890/1334	Bachelor Spinster	Currier	21 21	North East Valley North East Valley	8 years 10 years	In St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin	90/1732	21 May 1890	Revd P. Lynch, Roman Catholic Priest
170	21 May 1890	John Thomas Stanley Annie Stevenson	John Thomas Stanley Annie Stevenson 💍 1890/2014	Widower Spinster	Cutler	46 40	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 16 years	In Knox Church, Dunedin	90/1769	21 May 1890	Revd Dr Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
171	22 May 1890	Edward Ezra Houghton Jemima Emily Watt	Edward Ezra Houghton Jemima Emily Watt 💍 1890/1974	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	22 24	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 14 years	In the house of William Watt, Albany Street	90/1718	22 May 1890	Revd J. Ryley, Presbyterian Minister

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).