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 703

District of Auckland 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
538	3 September 1891	William Henry Hopkins Elizabeth Borragh	William Henry Boyens Elizabeth Dermott 💍 1891/3116 William Henry Wroath Elizabeth Broughton 💍 1891/1114 William Henry McKeay Elizabeth Mulligan 💍 1892/652 William Henry Houlding Helena Elizabeth Colbert 💍 1891/2516 William Cooper Elizabeth Morris 💍 1892/221	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	32 28	Parnell Parnell	4 years 4 years	Church of St Mary, Parnell	91/1997		3 September 1891	Rev. F. B. Preston, Ch of England
539	5 September 1891	Henry William Flatt Harriet Jane Miller	Henry William Flatt Harriet Jane Miller 💍 1891/2995	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	25 22	Newton Auckland	6 years 6 years	Dwelling of Mr Henry William Flatt, East St, Newton	91/2046		5 September 1891	Rev. J. Simmonds, Wesleyan
540	7 September 1891	William Thomas Hildreth Henrietta Ford	William Thomas Hildreth Phoebe Harford 💍 1891/1141	Bachelor Spinster	Pick & Shovel Merchant	38 25	Auckland Auckland	11 years 4 years	Registrars Office, Auckland	91/2073		7 September 1891	J. Owen, Registrar
541	8 September 1891	Alfred Stephenson Jessie Otto	Alfred Stephenson Jessie Otto 💍 1891/1250	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	31 27	Auckland Auckland	31 years 27 years	Dwelling of Mr Edward Stephenson, Allen St, Auckland	91/2040		8 September 1891	Rev. R. S. Muncrieff, Presbyterian
542	8 September 1891	Charles Frederick Peck Jane Elizabeth Neill	Charles Frederick Peek Jane Elizabeth Hill 💍 1891/1167	Bachelor Spinster	Sign Writer	23 25	Ellerslie Ellerslie	3 years 3 years	Dwelling of Mr Charles Peck, Russell Crescent, Ellerslie	91/2024		8 September 1891	Rev. F. B. Menors, Presbyterian
543	9 September 1891	James Charles Oakes Maria Workers	James Charles Oakes Marie Haslam 💍 1891/1922	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	23 24	Ponsonby Newton	3 years 24 years	Church of St Benedict, Newton	91/2771		9 September 1891	Rev. R. Riel, R. Catholic
544	10 September 1891	William Parkes Elizabeth Clark	William Purdy Elizabeth Clark 💍 1891/1166 Edward Walker Elizabeth Clark 💍 1891/1687 Joseph Patrick Keen Elizabeth Clark 💍 1892/289	Bachelor Spinster	Seller	23 20	Ponsonby Auckland	23 years 20 years	Dwelling of Mr Charles Clark, Allen St, Auckland	91/2023	Charles Clark, Father	10 September 1891	Rev. W. Birch, Baptist
545	10 September 1891	Henry Cormack Williams Eliza Evil	Harry Coombe Williams Eliza Ivil 💍 1891/1184	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Painter	24 20	Ponsonby College Road, Ponsonby	18 years 20 years	Church of St George, Ponsonby	91/2017	George Evil, Father	10 September 1891	Rev. W. Calder, Ch of England

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).