Intentions to Marry, 1891

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840403, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole and Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 28 2025

A few pages are missing due to focus issues.

The Archives NZ CSV index has recorded pages 765, 767 and 769 incorrectly as 795, 797 and 796.

Page 139

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1891

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
360	12 December 1891	Edward Marriott Boulton Nina Mary Wiggins	Edward Marriott Boulton Nina Mary Wiggins 💍 1891/2439	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	31 24	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 14 years	All Saints Church	91/3367		12 December 1891	Rev. C. H. Gosset, Church of England
361	14 December 1891	William Coomber Elizabeth Ellen Jane Spencer	William Coombes Elizabeth Ellen Lane 💍 1892/642 William Webber Elizabeth Ellen Birley 💍 1891/30 William Cooper Elizabeth Morris 💍 1892/221	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	24 24	Christchurch Christchurch	17 years 24 years	House of Mr. Jas. Love	91/3609		14 December 1891	Rev. S. J. Murray, Wesleyan
362	14 December 1891	William Thomas Hines Jessie Stone	William Thomas Hines Jessie Clara Stone 💍 1891/2954	Widower Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 23	Christchurch Christchurch	24 years 5 years	House of Rev. S. J. Murray, Sickfield	91/3767		14 December 1891	Rev. S. J. Murray, Presbyterian
363	14 December 1891	Edward George Turnbull Thomas Emma Charlotte Ann Hardy Johnston	Edward George Turnbull Thomas Emma Charlotte Lena Hardy-Johnston 💍 1891/2548	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 24	Christchurch Christchurch	18 years 12 years	Church of Holy Trinity, Avonside	91/3395		14 December 1891	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Church of England
364	14 December 1891	James Talbot Horton Emily Heider Hancock	James Talbot Norton Emily Pleiades Hancock 💍 1891/2484	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	28 19	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 19 years	St. Michael's Church	91/3388	Thomas Hancock, father of bride	14 December 1891	Rev. W. Harper, Church of England
365	19 December 1891	James McKendry Jack Arabella Janet Melville	James McKendry Jack Arabella Janet Melville 💍 1891/2429	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Dressmaker	24 22	Christchurch Christchurch	17 years 17 years	House of Peter Jack, Gore St	91/3358		19 December 1891	Rev. H. Irvine, Presbyterian
366	21 December 1891	George Sopp Elizabeth Hoar	George Sopp Elizabeth Moor 💍 1891/2551	Widower Widow	Contractor Housekeeper	44 44	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	House of Mr. W. Fisher, North Belt	91/3406		21 December 1891	Rev. W. S. Potter, Primitive Methodist

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).