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 1085

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 June 1891

In the Archives NZ name index, the names on this page are recorded as being on page 1084

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
211	21 May 1891	William Cook Elizabeth Carter	William Cook Elizabeth Carter 💍 1891/284	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	25 20	Parnell Parnell	5 years 20 years	Dwelling of John Childry, Parnell	91/1033	John Carter, father	21 May 1891	Revd. W. Lee, Wesleyan
212	21 May 1891	John Joseph Winnicott Sarah Ann Broderick	John Joseph Uinnicott Sarah Ann Broderick 💍 1891/845	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	23 20	Auckland Henderson	9 months 8 years	Church of St. Sepulchre	91/1055	Charlotte Broderick, mother	21 May 1891	Revd. B. T. Dudley, Ch. of England
213	22 May 1891	Frederick Beagle Elizabeth Pitts	Frederick Beagle Elizabeth Pitts 💍 1891/1029	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	30 30	Melbourne Devonport	5 years 20 years	Dwelling of Henry Pitts, Church St.	91/1907		22 May 1891	Revd. James Hill, Presbyterian
214	22 May 1891	Robert Avery Margaret Caulfield Wright	Robert Avery Margaretta Caulfield Wright 💍 1891/268	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	24 22	Kingsland Eden Terrace	2 years 22 years	St. David's Church	91/1041		22 May 1891	Revd. R. D. West, Presbyterian
215	22 May 1891	Thomas Henry Richards Annie McIntyre	Thomas Henry Richards Annie McIntyre 💍 1891/826	Bachelor Widow	Mariner	36 32	Ponsonby Ponsonby	4 months 6 years	Church of the Sacred Heart Ponsonby	91/1052		22 May 1891	Revd. Geo. Lillane R. Catholic
216	23 May 1891	John Hubert Hicks Emma New	John Hubert Hicks Emma New 💍 1891/836	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	31 26	Richmond Rd. Richmond Rd.	5 months 1 week	Dwelling of James Rooney	91/1070		23 May 1891	George Aldridge, Ch. of Christ
217	26 May 1891	John Gall Margaret Elizabeth May Theresa Tristram	John Gall Margaret Elizabeth Mary Teresa Tristram 💍 1891/3271	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 30	Rangiriri Kihikihi	4 years 10 years	Church of All Saints	91/1010		26 May 1891	Revd. W. Calder, Ch. of England
218	26 May 1891	George Frederick Vagey Jemima McCormick	George Frederick Vazey Jemima McCamish 💍 1891/139	Widower Spinster	Potter	40 20	Dargaville Dargaville	6 months 7 months	Registrar's Office, Auckland	91/1092	Elizabeth Ann McCormick, mother	26 May 1891	J. Raven Long, Registrar

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).