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 955

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 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
95	1 April 1891	William Thomas Lock Eleonora Lester Barcia		Widower Spinster	Barrister	42 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Peters Church	91/1283		1 April 1891	Rev W. E. Waters
96	1 April 1891	Francis John Nelson Martha Susannah Nelson	Francis John Nelson Martha Susannah Wall 💍 1891/540	Bachelor Spinster	Corporal Torpedo Corps	29 23	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Marks Church	91/1304		1 April 1891	Rev R. Coffey
97	1 April 1891	John McDonnell Mary Casey	John McDonnell Mary Casey 💍 1891/400 John Baptist Bassett Mary Casey 💍 1891/1309	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 23	Kaiwarra Kaiwarra	years years	St Marys Cathedral	91/1262		1 April 1891	Rev P. Power
98	2 April 1891	Nicolas Jacob Hill Mary Ann Lightfoot	Nicolai Jacob Nilsen Mary Ann Lightfoot 💍 1891/546	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	38 23	Wellington Wellington	years years	Home of Clara Lightfoot, Brunswick Street	91/1292		2 April 1891	Mr A. J. Turner
99	4 April 1891	William Henry John Sulford Annie Gertrude Smith	William Henry John Fulford Annie Gertrude Smith 💍 1891/542	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	24 23	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Marks Church	91/1306		4 April 1891	Rev R. Coffey
100	6 April 1891	William Presley Parker Priscilla Ann Wickens	William Presley Rash Priscilla Ann Milton 💍 1891/536	Widower Spinster	Brickmaker	35 27	Wellington Berhampore	years years	Home of Clara Wickens, Berhampore	91/1300		6 April 1891	Rev W. H. Beck
101	7 April 1891	Hugh Christie Margaret Macdonald	Hugh Christie Margaret McDonald 💍 1891/407	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	33 25	Wellington Wellington	5 days 3 months	St Johns Church, Karori	91/1246		7 April 1891	Rev J. Paterson
102	7 April 1891	Herman Herman Helen Leo	Herman Hermansen Helen Lee 💍 1891/541	Widower Spinster	Hospital Nurse	36 25	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Marks Church	91/1305		7 April 1891	Rev R. Coffey
103	7 April 1891	William Harry Gumm Clara Bertha Keys	William Henry Gunning Clara Bertha Boys 💍 1891/547	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	33 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars Office, Wellington	91/1310		7 April 1891	Mr I. Wyatt
104	8 April 1891	John Pilcher Ellen Elliott	John Pilcher Ellen Elliott 💍 1891/545	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 18	Lower Hutt Wellington	years years	Registrars Office, Wellington	91/1309	Edward Elliott, Father	8 April 1891	Mr I. Wyatt
105	11 April 1891	Cecil Frederick Sainsbury Frances Theresa Brand	Cecil Frederick Maurice Wroughton Frances Theresa Brandon 💍 1891/393	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	31 32	Wellington Wellington	1 day years	St Pauls Cathedral	91/1256		11 April 1891	Rev J. C. Andrew
106	11 April 1891	Henry Hobson Elizabeth Faber	Henry Dobson Elizabeth Faber 💍 1891/548	Widower Widow	Upholsterer	51 52	Wellington Wellington	year years	Registrars Office, Wellington	91/1311		11 April 1891	Mr I. Wyatt
107	14 April 1891	Henry Charles Mandell Louisa Emily Allan	Henry Charles Mansell Luisa Emily Allan 💍 1891/398	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 25	Petone Wellington	1 month years	Home of Mr Mandell, Petone	91/1242		14 April 1891	Rev A. Thomson
108	15 April 1891	John William Winstanley Sarah Ann Newton	John William Windle Sarah Ann Newton 💍 1891/556	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	34 23	Wellington Adelaide Road	years years	Wesleyan Church, Adelaide Road	91/1296		15 April 1891	Rev W. H. Beck
109	15 April 1891	William Parker Annie Holliday	William Parker Annie Holliday 💍 1891/543	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	29 28	Wellington Wellington	5 days years	St Marks Church	91/1307		15 April 1891	Rev R. Coffey

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).