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 1472

District of Auckland 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
87	24 February 1891	Elliott Henry Couch Fanny Couch		Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	26 21	Ponsonby Mt Eden	10 years 10 years	Congregational Chapel	91/143		25 February 1891	Rev. R. J. Lewis
88	24 February 1891	Henry Barnes Frances Charlotte Jenkin	Henry Barnes Mary Margaret O'Shea 💍 1891/2260	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 24	Mangere Mangere	10 years 10 years	Registrar's Office	91/149	Bryan Jenkin, Father	25 February 1891	J. Owen Lord, Regr
89	25 February 1891	James Bayliss Mary E. Smith	John James Bayliss Mary Smith 💍 1891/3097	Bachelor Spinster	Setter	27 19	Newton Auckland	10 years 10 years	Registrar's Office	91/151	Anne Smith, mother	25 February 1891	J. Owen Lord, Regr
90	25 February 1891	William Meredith Ethel Margaret Baker	William Stericker Ethel Margaret Batger 💍 1891/3389	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	38 25	Mt Eden Mt Eden	6 years 25 years	Church of England	91/99		26 February 1891	Rev. B. T. Dudley, Ch. of England
91	25 February 1891	Frederick Smith Elizabeth Simpson	Frederick Smith Elizabeth Simpson 💍 1891/3098	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	24 21	Eden Terrace Surrey Hills	24 years 21 years	Registrar's Office	91/152		27 February 1891	J. Owen Lord, Regr
92	2 March 1891	James Ramsay Frances Padham	James Ramsay Frances Wadham 💍 1891/3027	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	37 27	Dunedin Auckland	7 years 27 years	Dwelling of Mrs. Cadell	91/179		2 March 1891	Rev. R. J. Menzies, Presbyterian
93	2 March 1891	James Beacham Teresa Aurelia Lee Bradley		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 21	Helensville Helensville	10 years 8 years	Registrar's Office	91/153		2 March 1891	J. Owen Lord, Regr
94	2 March 1891	James Rickards Ada Blanche Bayliss	James Richdale Eva Blanche Bayliss 💍 1891/3076	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 15	Alexandra Alexandra	31 years 15 years	Registrar's Office	91/154	John Bayliss, Father	2 March 1891	J. Owen Lord, Regr

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).