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 347

District of Auckland 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
380	October 1891	Robert Samuel Ethel Vines	Robert Samuel Abel Ethel Viner Garlick 💍 1891/2024	Bachelor Spinster	Stationer	31 23	Auckland Auckland	4 years 23 years	Dwelling of Richard H. Garlic	91/2927		October 1891	Revd. T. D. Cade, Baptist
381	October 1891	George Cockhead Jane January	George Coxhead Jane Jowsey 💍 1891/2103	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 22	Papatoitoi Northside	26 years 3 years	Dwelling of Charles Cockhead	91/2875		October 1891	Revd. J. Rishworth, Wesleyan
3828	October 1891	James Mellwood Editha Kemming	James Smallwood Editha Trimming 💍 1891/2028	Bachelor Spinster	Mechanical Engineer	44 29	Auckland Auckland	35 years 2 months	Registrars Office	91/2931		October 1891	J. Owen Lord, Regr
3830	October 1891	William Henry Frances Reeve	William Henry Carter Frances Sara Reeve 💍 1891/2107	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	27 27	Remuera Newton Road	2 years 5 years	Bishops Chapel, Bishops College	91/2887		October 1891	Right Revd. W. G. Cowie, Ch of England
3840	October 1891	Alfred Edward Jane Ivil	Alfred Everard Macindoe Jane Ivil 💍 1891/2029	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	31 19	Ponsonby College Road	10 years 9 years	Registrars Office	91/2932	George Ivil, Father	October 1891	J. Owen Lord, Regr
38512	October 1891	James George Alice Margaret		Bachelor Spinster	Draftsman	28 22	Onehunga Onehunga	28 years 22 years	The Assembly	91/2922		October 1891	Revd. J. Paul, R. Catholic
38612	October 1891	John Miller Ellen Crowe	John Pilcher Ellen Elliott 💍 1891/545 John Till Ellen Udy 💍 1892/151 John McDonell Ellen Brookie 💍 1891/1314 John Mitchell Ellen McInroe 💍 1891/2796 John Bailey Ellen Soanes 💍 1891/2812	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	22 19	Epsom Flat Bush	8 months 19 years	Church of St. Mark	91/2879	Thomas Crowe, Father	October 1891	Revd. Richards, Ch of England
38712	October 1891	John McRedie Celia McRedie		Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	24 22	Takapuna St. Georges Bay	5 years 16 years	Dwelling of Charles McRedie	91/2900		October 1891	Revd. W. H. Greenwood, Ch of Christ

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).