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 273

District of Wanganui 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
69	19 November 1891	William Ivory Sophy Germain	William Ivory Hessell Sophy Permain 💍 1891/2201	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Clerk	25 21	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days 3 days	Ch. of England, Wanganui	91/3057	23 November 1891	G. H. York
70	23 November 1891	Henry Duffy John Rowell		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 28	Wanganui Eastown	7 yrs 15 yrs	In the Residence of J. Rowell	91/3058	25 November 1891	K. K. Dawson, Wesleyan
71	24 November 1891	Frederick August Edward Ahdes Eliza Bourne	Frederick August Edward Ander Eliza Bourne 💍 1891/2170	Bachelor Spinster	Wood Turner	28 28	Wanganui Wanganui	5 yrs 8 yrs	In the Residence of F. Ahdes	91/3062	28 November 1891	J. H. Wood, Registrar
72	26 November 1891	Michael Herrick Saunders Blanche Hayman Coles	Michael Frederick Scanlan Blanche Rayman Coles 💍 1891/2182	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 21	Wanganui Wanganui	7 days 7 days	In the Office of the Registrar	91/3063	30 November 1891	J. H. Wood, Registrar
73	27 November 1891	Thomas George Ellis Charlotte Caroline Elliott	Thomas George Pite Ellis Phoebe Caroline Elliott 💍 1891/2199	Bachelor Spinster	Salvation Army Officer Salvation Army Officer	33 24	Pari Kino Wanganui	4 mos 3 mos	In the Salvation Army Barracks, Wanganui	91/3055	30 November 1891	J. H. Wood, Registrar
74	30 November 1891	Ernest Wright Nawai Hine urn	Ernest Wright Ngawai Hineuru 💍 1891/2183	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	51 48	Wanganui Wanganui	7 days 7 days	Marriage, Wanganui	91/3056	1 December 1891	J. H. Wood, Registrar
75	23 December 1891	John Dodd Gilliland Eleanor Jane McKee	John Dodd Gilliland Eleanor Jane McKee 💍 1891/2198	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer	47 34	Wanganui Brunswick	3 days 4 yrs	In the Residence of Mr. G. A. Bennett	91/3054	25 December 1891	James Trainor, Presbyterian
76	24 December 1891	Norman Nicholson Elizabeth Jane Perdot		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 21

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).