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 1346

District of Napier 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
24	13 March 1891	William Taylor Agnes Coles	William Taylor Agnes Coles 💍 1891/3103	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Domestic	30 28	Napier Napier	3 years 9 months	Office of the Registrar of Marriages	91/465	13 March 1891	Sydney J. Jago, Registrar
25	13 March 1891	Alexander McDonald Bower Maria Emily Batty	Alexander McDonald Bower Maria Emily Dally 💍 1891/3123	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic	32 31	Napier Napier	5 years 4 weeks	English Church at Port Ahuriri	91/460	13 March 1891	Rev. O. Dean, Church of England
26	16 March 1891	Arthur Smith Clara Hoffman	Arthur Smith Clara Hoffman 💍 1891/3102	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	over 21 over 21	Little River Napier	14 years 24 days 5 years 4 days	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Napier	91/464	16 March 1891	S. J. Jago, Registrar
27	17 March 1891	James Robert Miller Ada Le Grosjean	James Robert Miller Ada Le Moignan 💍 1891/3798	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	25 over 21	Napier Napier	25 years 20 years	Residence of J. Remond, Shakespeare Road Napier	91/956	17 March 1891	Rev. J. G. Paterson, Presbyterian
28	18 March 1891	Charles Perry Jane McCullum	Charles Perry Jane MacCallum 💍 1891/3814	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	28 23	Herbertville Porangahau	6 years 4 days 20 years 4 days at Napier	Cathedral at Napier	91/946	18 March 1891	Rev. D. Burdett Horrell, Church of England
29	19 March 1891	David Hyden Emily Smith	David Hyden Emily Smith 💍 1891/3799	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	29 over 21	Port Ahuriri Napier	5 years 14 years	Presbyterian Manse Napier	91/957	19 March 1891	Rev. J. G. Paterson, Presbyterian
30	23 March 1891	Mark Sharp Sophia Kite	Mark Sharp Sophia Kite 💍 1891/3104	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	65 46	East Clive East Clive	12 years 12 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages Napier	91/466	23 March 1891	S. J. Jago, Registrar
31	26 March 1891	William Clark Catherine McEwan	William Clark Catherine McEwen 💍 1891/3800 William Clark Charlotte Helen Dillon 💍 1891/1189	Bachelor Spinster	Canning fitter Domestic	32 over 21	Napier Napier	4 years 15 years	Presbyterian Church Napier	91/958	26 March 1891	Rev. J. G. Paterson, Presbyterian
32	28 March 1891	Hubert Harris Annie Maria Corbin	Hubert Harris Annie Maria Corbin 💍 1891/567	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer School Teacher	34 26	Taradale Taradale	6 years 5 years	All Saints Church Taradale	91/1410	28 March 1891	Rev. C. L. Tuke, Church of England

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).