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 647

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 30 September 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
52	10 August 1891	James Walsh Sarah Dorley	James Walsh Annie Hoare 💍 1891/3129	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	22 21	Wanganui Wanganui	20 yrs. 1 yr.	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	91/259		10 August 1891	J. H. Wood, Registrar
53	14 August 1891	Frederick William Jones Eleanor Caroline Day	Frederick William Jones Eleanor Caroline Day 💍 1891/1819	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	16 17	Wanganui Aramoho	16 yrs. 12 mos.	In the residence of Rev. John Jones, Marshall Square, Wanganui	91/260	John Day, father	14 August 1891	Rev. John Jones, Wesleyan
54	17 August 1891	John Day Margaret Elizabeth Maud Kilsey	John Day Margaret Elizabeth Maud Hassey 💍 1891/1299	Widower Spinster	Labourer	30 21	Aramoho Aramoho	18 mos. 9 mos.	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	91/261		17 August 1891	J. H. Wood, Registrar
55	24 August 1891	George Death Emily Josephine Barnes	George Death Emily Josephine Barns 💍 1891/1829	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 22	Anui View Putiki	8 yrs. 14 yrs.	In the residence of W. A. Barnes, Putiki	91/262		24 August 1891	James Treatwell, Presbyterian
56	25 August 1891	Julius Albert Ludwigs Mary Ellen White	Julius Albert Ludwick Kurth Mary Gowens White 💍 1891/1824	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 25	St. John's Hill St. John's Hill	3 yrs. 3 mos.	In the Church of England (Christchurch), Wanganui	91/263		25 August 1891	T. H. Tudor, Church of England
57	28 August 1891	George Cecil Price Violet Swan	George Robert Price Violet Swan 💍 1891/1825	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	26 21	Wanganui Wanganui	15 yrs. 21 yrs.	In the Church of England (Christchurch), Wanganui	91/264		28 August 1891	T. H. Tudor, Church of England
58	5 September 1891	Samuel John Reynolds Mary Ann Smith	Samuel John Reynolds Mary Ann Smith 💍 1891/1310	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	31 17	Maxwelltown Maxwelltown	10 yrs. 10 yrs.	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	91/265	George Smith, father	5 September 1891	J. H. Wood, Registrar
59	16 September 1891	John Thomas Walker Esther Jane Bennett	John Thomas Walker Esther Jane Bennett 💍 1891/1830	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 22	Aramoho Brunswick	38 yrs. 15 yrs.	In the residence of Mr. Alexander, Brunswick	91/266		16 September 1891	James Treatwell, 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).