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 124

District of Ashburton 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
703	14 October 1891	Jeremiah O'Connell Catherine Ann Warrack	Jeremiah Henry OConnell Catherine Ann Hassack 💍 1891/2520	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Domestic Servant	34 25	Longbeach Ashburton	20 months 4 months	Registrar's Office, Ashburton	91/3450		14 October 1891	J. Ward, Registrar
704	22 October 1891	David Zander Ruby Herman	David Lander Ruby Herman 💍 1891/2847	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	29 18	Ashburton Ashburton	10 years 15 months	Private Dwelling of David Zander at Ashburton	91/3778		22 October 1891	Revd. A. J. Chadwick
705	29 October 1891	Edwin Parkin Florence Jane Pearce	Edwin Parkin Florence Jane Pearce 💍 1891/2690	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	25 21	Ashburton Ashburton	17 years 12 years	Private Dwelling of Edwin Parkin at Ashburton	91/3244		29 October 1891	Revd. James W. Bawle
706	31 October 1891	Dennis McHendry Margaret Honey	Dennis McKendry Margaret Christina Henry 💍 1891/2519	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 24	Lauriston Ashburton	13 months 7 years	Roman Catholic Ch., Ashburton	91/3449		31 October 1891	Revd. F. Chastagnon
707	11 November 1891	Henry James Jastrow Sarah Davis Crick	Henry James Tasker Sarah Davis Covich 💍 1891/2499	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	23 20	Ashburton Ashburton	13 years 5 days, Treverton	Private Dwelling of James Jastrow, Father, at Ashburton	91/3445	Sarah Wright, Mother	11 November 1891	Revd. F. Lowry
708	23 November 1891	Edward Thomas Stoddart Elizabeth Miller Horsley	Edward Thomas Stoddart Elizabeth Miller Horsey 💍 1891/2521	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 23	Longbeach Longbeach	8 years 10 years	Registrar's Office, Ashburton	91/3451		23 November 1891	J. Ward, Registrar
709	8 December 1891	Thomas Warrack Elizabeth Anna Anderson	Thomas Hancox Elizabeth Anna Anderson 💍 1892/603	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Domestic Servant	23 19	Ashburton Ashburton	12 years 6 months	Church of England, Ashburton	92/661	Thomas Anderson, Father, Bootmaker	8 December 1891	Archdeacon Harper
710	8 December 1891	William Gray Elizabeth Jane Nieling	William Gray Elizabeth Jane Heleng 💍 1891/2518	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker Domestic Servant	36 17	Ashburton Allenton	8 years 16 years	Private Dwellinghouse of George Nieling at Allenton	91/3448	George Nieling, Father	8 December 1891	Revd. James Cocker
711	12 December 1891	George Osborne Fanny Louisa Frampton	George Osborne Fanny Louisa Frampton 💍 1891/2510	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 21	Willowby Willowby	7 years 9 years	Wesleyan Church at Willowby	91/3446		12 December 1891	Revd. J. H. Gonny
712	21 December 1891	Arthur Dee Harriett Avery	Arthur Dee Harriet Tovey 💍 1891/2517	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Dressmaker	33 29	Ashburton Ashburton	12 years 6 months	St. Stephen's Church, Ashburton	91/3447		21 December 1891	Revd. S. A. Scott

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).