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 961

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
185	20 June 1891	George Start Jessie Hutchison	George Hart Jessie Hutchison 💍 1891/554	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	Home of Mr. Emahon	91/1294	Mr. A. F. Turner	20 June 1891	Mr. A. F. Turner
186	22 June 1891	John Tate Louisa Wilson	John Harsant Lydia Wilson 💍 1892/203	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	25 26	Wellington Wellington	years years	Home of Mr. Berhampore	91/2230		22 June 1891	Rev. W. H. Beck
187	22 June 1891	John Edward Mitchell Julia Broderick	John Edward Mitchell Julia Broderick 💍 1891/464	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	27 24	Wellington Wellington	years 4 days	Registrars office Wellington	91/1328		22 June 1891	Mr. W. Waynell
188	23 June 1891	John Tennent Knight Nora Josephine Elizabeth Thew	John Penrose Knight Nina Josephine Elizabeth Hall 💍 1891/429	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 22	Lower Hutt Lower Hutt	4 days 4 days	Home of Mr. James Knight, Lower Hutt	91/1268		23 June 1891	Rev. R. H. Blake
189	24 June 1891	Peter Cameron Amelia Eliza Sarah Pelham	Peter Camerine Amelia Eliza Sarah Feltham 💍 1891/415	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	27 22	Wellington Wellington	monthly monthly	Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street	91/1278		24 June 1891	Rev. J. J. Lewis
190	25 June 1891	John Cameron Georgina Parker	John Cameron Georgina Parker 💍 1891/388	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	27 23	Wellington Wellington	1 year months	Presbyterian Church, Willis Street	91/1251		25 June 1891	Rev. J. Paterson
191	27 June 1891	Fred Jackson Tylee Cecilia Harris	Fred Jackson St John Parson Cecelia Harris 💍 1891/466	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 21	Wellington Wellington	years 1 week	Registrars office Wellington	91/1330		27 June 1891	Mr. W. Waynell
192	29 June 1891	James Theodore Wilson Elizabeth Watson	James Theodore Wilson Elizabeth Watson 💍 1891/341	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 21	Wanganui Wanganui	years years	House of Mr. Button, Wanganui	91/1203		29 June 1891	Rev. J. Treadwell
193	29 June 1891	John William Henderson Ellen Mason	John William Henderson Ellen Mason 💍 1891/555	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	29 29	Wellington Wellington	5 days 5 days	House of Rev. J. K. Elliott, Oriental Bay	91/1295		29 June 1891	Rev. J. K. Elliott
194	30 June 1891	Arthur Hector Gird Rachel Burke	Arthur Hector Gore Rachel Burke 💍 1891/396	Bachelor Widow	Secretary	25 31	Wellington Wellington	1 week 3 days	S. Pauls Cathedral	91/1259		30 June 1891	Rev. John Stile

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).