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 040

District of Gore Quarter ending 31 December 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
23	7 October 1891	Austin Liddy Mary White	Austin Lyddy Mary White 💍 1891/2849 William Nedd Mary White 💍 1892/513	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	48 32	Riverdale Gore	8 years 3 days	R.C. Church, Gordon	91/3804		7 October 1891	Rev. W. J. Newport, R.C. Clergyman, Gore
24	10 October 1891	Augustus Reincke Louisa Dormann		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 17	Gore Gore	15 years 17 years	Residence of Wm. Dormann	91/3640	William Dormann, Father	10 October 1891	Rev. J. A. Ashe, Presbyterian Clergyman, Gore
25	19 October 1891	Hector Dalziell Isabella Ellen Miller		Bachelor Spinster	Labour	28 22	Gore Gore	3 days 12 years	Residence of Frank Chatton	91/3638		19 October 1891	Rev. Peter Ramsay, Presbyterian Clergyman, Gore
26	16 November 1891	James Paterson Ellen Ann Walls	James Paterson Ellen Ann Walls 💍 1891/2738	Bachelor Spinster	Gore Carpenter Gore	25 20	Gore Gore	3 months 5 years	Residence of Ann Walls, Gore	91/3642	Mary Ann Walls, mother	16 November 1891	Rev. Chris. Abernethy, Wesleyan Clergyman, Gore
27	21 November 1891	Michael Lawlor Alice Kelly	Michael Lawlor Alice Kelly 💍 1891/2850	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	31 23	Riverdale Riverdale	9 years 10 years	R.C. Church at Gordon	91/3805		21 November 1891	Rev. W. J. Newport, R.C. Clergyman, Gore
28	30 November 1891	John Gilder Marion Boyd	John Gilder Marion Boyd 💍 1891/2739	Widower Spinster	Farmer	54 32	Gore Gore	3 days 3 days	Residence of Wm. Wilson, Gordon	91/3643		30 November 1891	Rev. Chris. Abernethy, Gore
29	2 December 1891	John Beck Christina Dickison	John Beck Christina Dickson 💍 1891/2716	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 38	Gore Gore	3 days 8 months	Residence of John Dickison, Tapanui	91/3647		2 December 1891	Rev. W. R. Brown, Presbyterian Clergyman, Waikaia
30	3 December 1891	William Ibbotson Agnes Jones	William Ibbotson Agnes Jones 💍 1891/2737	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 21	Gore Gore	8 years 15 years	Residence of Henry Jones, Chatton	91/3641	Hy. Jones, Father	3 December 1891	Rev. T. L. Stanley, English Clergyman, Gore
31	22 December 1891	Henry King Horsell Tremain Margaret McAllan	William Henry Horrell Tremaine Margaret McAllan 💍 1891/2735	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 20	Otama Otama	5 years 13 years	Residence of William McAllan, Otama	91/3639	William McAllan, Father	22 December 1891	Rev. Peter Ramsay, Presbyterian Clergyman, Chatton
32	24 December 1891	Thomas Inchiron Barbara Williamson	Thomas MacLean Barbara Williamson 💍 1892/3853	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	29 23	Gore Gore	2 years 13 years	Residence of Alex. Williamson, Chatton	91/3622		24 December 1891	Rev. Peter Ramsay, Presbyterian Clergyman, Chatton

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).