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 143

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 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
331	12 November 1891	Frederic Boult Hughes Blanche Ethel Maud Burrell	Frederick Boulton Hughes Blanch Ethel Maud Burrell 💍 1891/2563	Bachelor Spinster	Insurance Agent	23 18	Christchurch Christchurch	1 month 18 years	Salvation Army Barracks, Market Square, Christchurch	91/3417	John Burrell, Father	12 November 1891	M. H. Vace, Major, Salvation Army
332	12 November 1891	Robert Haswell Wood Elizabeth Anne Freeman	Robert Haswell Wood Elizabeth Anne Freeman 💍 1891/2483	Widower Spinster	Timber Merchant	47 38	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 20 years	St. Michael's Church, Christchurch	91/3387		12 November 1891	Rev. W. Harper, Church of England
333	12 November 1891	Andrew Nankivell Rubina Begg	Andrew Nankivell Rubina Begg 💍 1891/2675	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	20 20	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 2 years	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	91/3430	John Nankivell, Father; Rubina Begg, Mother	12 November 1891	J. M. Macpherson, Registrar of Marriages
334	12 November 1891	Lawrence James Dennis Elizabeth Anne Skelton	Lawrence Samuel Dennis Elizabeth Annie Skelton 💍 1891/2430	Bachelor Spinster	Poulterer	30 23	Christchurch Christchurch	30 years 23 years	Wesleyan Parsonage, Christchurch	91/3359		12 November 1891	Rev. W. J. Williams, Wesleyan
335	14 November 1891	Thomas William Perry Rebecca Jane Osborne	Thomas William Perry Rebecca Jane Osborne 💍 1891/2676	Bachelor Widow	Coalman Housekeeper	41 39	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	91/3431		14 November 1891	J. M. Macpherson, Registrar of Marriages
336	16 November 1891	Samuel Morse Lucy Amelia Barnden	Samuel Morse Lucy Amelia Barnden 💍 1891/2485	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 19	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 16 years	House of Mrs. Morse, Durham St., Christchurch	91/3371	William Morse, Father; Frederick Barnden, Father	16 November 1891	Rev. J. Edwards, Methodist
337	20 November 1891	James Stewart Margaret Calder James	James Stewart Margaret Calder Innes 💍 1891/2553	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Governess	31 23	Christchurch Templeton	2 years 23 years	St. Saviour's Church, Christchurch	91/3408		20 November 1891	Rev. W. J. Knell, 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).