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 176

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 March 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
1	2 January 1890	James Sanders Eliza Williams	James Sanders Elizabeth Williams 💍 1890/696	Bachelor Widow	Laborer Domestic	38 35	Woodville Napier over Woodville Napier over	3 Months 3 days 15 months 3 days	Residence of Rev David Sidey, Napier	90/338		2 January 1890	Rev D Sidey, Presbyterian
2	3 January 1890	Uno Thure Gideon Widerstrom Winnifred Eva Pannion	Uno Thure Gideon Widerstrond Winifred Eva Tannion 💍 1890/505	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	34 22	Napier Napier	10 days several years	Wesleyan Chapel, Napier	90/367		3 January 1890	Rev T J Wallis, Wesleyan
3	6 January 1890	Arthur Shutts Fanny Algar	Arthur Stubbs Fanny Algar 💍 1890/506	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 over 21	Napier Napier	5 years Residence 3 years Bride's father Napier	Residence of Bride's father, Napier	90/368		6 January 1890	Rev T J Wallis, Wesleyan
4	6 January 1890	Patrick Garrett Bridget Mulcahey	Patrick Barrett Bridget Mulchasey 💍 1890/514 Patrick Coll Bridget Casey 💍 1890/1969	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	25 24	Port Ahuriri Port Ahuriri	8 months 9 months	Roman Catholic Chapel, Napier	90/375		6 January 1890	Rev Father Grogan, Catholic Priest
5	7 January 1890	Alfred Moffatt Smith Annie Dickson Campbell	Alfred Moffat Smith Annie Dickson Campbell 💍 1890/502	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager	28 24	Rissington Poukawa	20 months Residence of Bride's father 20 years Poukawa Hastings	Residence of Bride's father, Poukawa Hastings	90/364		7 January 1890	Rev D Sidey, Presbyterian
6	8 January 1890	Samuel Mortensen Else Catherine Andersen	Samuel Mortensen Else Catherine Andersen 💍 1890/515	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	22 17	Port Ahuriri Port Ahuriri	1 year Office of the Registrar of Marriages Napier 1 year	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Napier	90/376	Neils Andersen, Father of Else Catherine Andersen	8 January 1890	S J Jago, Registrar
7	16 January 1890	John Carruth Hannah Wootton	John Carruth Hannah Wootton 💍 1890/507	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	26 25	Napier Napier	15 years Residence of Bride's father Gladstone Road Napier 15 years	Residence of Bride's father, Gladstone Road, Napier	90/369		16 January 1890	Rev D Mac Nicoll, Wesleyan
8	18 January 1890	John Thomas Goldspich Mary Ann Landers	John Thomas Goldfinch Mary Ann Sanders 💍 1890/795 John Thomas Williams Mary Anne Leonard 💍 1890/3102	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	30 20	Napier Napier	20 years Residence of Bride's father Little Beach Napier 6 years	Residence of Bride's father, Little Beach, Napier	90/398	Thomas Landers, Father of Mary Ann Landers	18 January 1890	Rev J S Paterson, Presbyterian

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).