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 1220

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 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
36	12 February 1891	James Nichol Jane Millar Gunn Rutherford	James Nichol Jane Millar Gunn Rutherford 💍 1891/3709	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	36 years 26 years	South Dunedin South Dunedin	3 days 8 years	In the house of Alexander Gunn Rutherford	91/764		12 February 1891	Revd W. Campbell, Presbyterian Minister
37	12 February 1891	Charles Hilton Margaret Fraser	Charles Hilton Margaret Fraser 💍 1891/3175	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	23 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	23 years 21 years	In Knox Church	91/787		12 February 1891	Revd Dr Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
38	13 February 1891	William Hume Sabina Vinne Champney	William Hume Sabrina Vinne Champney 💍 1891/3702	Bachelor Widow	Dealer	38 years 28 years	Dunedin South Dunedin	3 days 3 months	In All Saints Church	91/732		13 February 1891	Revd A. R. Fitchett, Church of England Minister
39	14 February 1891	James Davidson Martha Buff	James Davidson Martha Cuff 💍 1891/95	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	29 years 19 years	Mornington Mornington	2 years 19 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages	91/816	Frederick Buff, father of minor	14 February 1891	W. J. Hall, Registrar of Marriages
40	16 February 1891	George McCallum Mary Larkins	George McCallum Mary Larkins 💍 1891/96	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	27 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 8 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages	91/817		16 February 1891	W. J. Hall, Registrar of Marriages
41	18 February 1891	Richard James Grimmett Mary McDermott	Richard James Grimmett Mary McDarmott 💍 1891/3694	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	23 years 28 years	Leaversham Dunedin	17 years 3 years	In the Wesleyan Church	91/747		18 February 1891	Revd G. W. Spence, Wesleyan Minister
42	19 February 1891	John Douglas Norris Jessie Findlay	John Douglas Norris Jessie Findlay 💍 1891/3177	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	22 years 18 years	South Dunedin South Dunedin	1 year 2 years	In Knox Church	91/789	Elizabeth Findlay, mother of minor	19 February 1891	Revd Dr Stuart, Presbyterian Minister

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).