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 637

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 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
132	15 April 1890	William Joseph Crawshaw Amelia Elizabeth Cron	William Joseph Crawshaw Amelia Elizabeth Crone 💍 1890/948	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Accountant	29 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 4 years	Holy Trinity Church, Avonside	90/1507	15 April 1890	Rev W. A. Pascoe, Church of England
133	16 April 1890	William Arthur Henry Andrews Kate Elizabeth Hancock	William Arthur Henry Andrews Kate Elizabeth Hancock 💍 1890/2098	Bachelor Spinster	Moulder	21 25	Christchurch Christchurch	21 years 5 years	St. Peters Church	90/1906	16 April 1890	Rev Canon Stanford, Church of England
134	17 April 1890	Peter Lennox Lizzie Cat Spence	Peter Lennox Lizzie Cox 💍 1890/1882	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 22	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 10 years	St. Andrews Manse	90/1567	17 April 1890	Rev G. Webster, Presbyterian
135	18 April 1890	Charles Alister Trotter Margaret McDonald	Charles Alister Tratter Margaret McDonald 💍 1890/958 Charles George Brookes Mary Elizabeth McDonald 💍 1890/2824	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	23 29	Christchurch Christchurch	10 days 3 days	House of Rev P. R. Munro	90/1494	18 April 1890	Rev P. R. Munro, Presbyterian
136	18 April 1890	James William Davie Ada Priscilla Thomas	James William Davie Ada Priscilla Thomas 💍 1890/1935	Bachelor Spinster	Cutter	23 25	Christchurch Christchurch	9 years 7 years	St. Lukes Church	90/1537	18 April 1890	Rev Arch Dugard, Church of England
137	19 April 1890	George Robertson Patterson Jane Guildbride	George Robertson Patterson Sara Guilbride 💍 1890/1931	Widower Spinster	Sheep Farmer	48 36	Victoria Christchurch	40 years 1 month	St. Michaels Church	90/1552	19 April 1890	Rev W. Harper, Church of England
138	22 April 1890	William Charles Satchell Alice Bright	William Charles Satchell Alice Bright 💍 1890/1859	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	24 26	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 6 years	St. Johns Church	90/1518	22 April 1890	Rev J. B. Hare, Church 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 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).