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 1390

District of Wellington 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
16	21 January 1891	Canterbury Balclain Elizabeth Bailey	Courtenay Baldwin Elizabeth Bailey 💍 1891/3484	Widower Spinster	Gentleman	57 33	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	91/379		21 January 1891	W. L. Wyatt
17	21 January 1891	William Waterworth Maud Isabella Firth	William Waterworth Maud Isabella Firth 💍 1891/61	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor	23 20	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Peters Church	91/332	Arthur Firth, father	21 January 1891	Revd F. W. Walker
18	26 January 1891	William James Hudson Constance Bothe		Widower Spinster	Gentleman	52 29	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	St Pauls Cathedral	91/336		26 January 1891	Revd J. C. Andrew
19	26 January 1891	Walter James Pethick Alice Mary Caroline Billows	Walter James Petherick Alice Mary Caroline Billows 💍 1891/3060	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	24 19	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Marks Church	91/303	Michael Bean, Father	26 January 1891	Revd R. Coffey
20	26 January 1891	Arthur Scoullar Harriet Amelia Powley	Arthur Scoullar Harriet Amanda Powley 💍 1891/3485	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	22 20	Wellington Wellington	years 1 year	Registrars office Wellington	91/380	William Powley, Father	26 January 1891	W. L. Wyatt
21	27 January 1891	Jeremiah Sach Kate Anderson	Jeremiah Nash Kate Anderson 💍 1891/3153	Widower Spinster	Publican	40 25	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Mary of the Angels	91/364		27 January 1891	Revd P. Kerrigan
22	27 January 1891	Leopold England Sarah Fanny Laurence	Leopold England Sarah Fanny Lawrence 💍 1891/3486	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 21	Wellington Wellington	1 year years	Registrars office Wellington	91/381		27 January 1891	Mr. A. S. Turner
23	27 January 1891	Henry Greychett Coward Charlotte Mabel Sharkey	Henry Greyshott Cornwall Charlotte Mabel Sharkey 💍 1891/57	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	Home of Mr. Henry Bick, Gordon Street	91/351		27 January 1891
24	28 January 1891	Elliot Hume Lillian Valerie Maud Loveday	Elliot Hume Liliani Valerie Maud Loveday 💍 1891/3459	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	30 19	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Marks Church	91/301	Rambut William Loveday, Father	28 January 1891	Revd R. Coffey
25	29 January 1891	George William Heard Eliza Adcock	George William Sears Eliza Adcock 💍 1891/3049	Bachelor Spinster	Trammanger	25 26	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	St Marks Church	91/302		29 January 1891	Revd R. Coffey
26	29 January 1891	John Albert Barker Hume Jane Coster	John Albert Barker Howe Jane Coster 💍 1891/3168	Bachelor Spinster	Insurance Clerk	22 19	Wellington Wellington	years years	Home of Captn. Tott, Maddonald Street, Greymouth	91/355	Susan Coster, mother	29 January 1891	Revd C. H. Laws
27	30 January 1891	Charles Hadden Margaret Kittle	David Madden Margaret Kittle 💍 1891/3056	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	47 28	Wellington Wellington	14 days years	St Marys Cathedral	91/317		30 January 1891	Very Revd J. C. [illegible]
28	3 February 1891	Samuel Cornish Ellen Ellen Telfer	Samuel Smith Selina Ellen Telfer 💍 1891/62	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	32 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Peters Church	91/333		3 February 1891	Revd F. W. Walker
29	3 February 1891	John Craig Mary Ann Thompson	John Doig Mary Annie Thompson 💍 1891/3487	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	32 34	Brooklyn Brooklyn	1 year years	Registrars office Wellington	91/382		3 February 1891	W. L. Wyatt
30	4 February 1891	Richard Lepine Mary Ann Galloway	Michael Leepane Mary Ann Galloway 💍 1891/3458	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	20 17	Wellington Pahautanui	3 days years	Roman Catholic Church, Pahautanui	91/300	John Galloway, father	4 February 1891	Revd John Lane

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).