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 138

District of Christchurch 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
367	21 December 1891	Henry Andrew Patterson Gertrude Parker	Henry Andrew Patterson Gertrude Parker 💍 1891/2571	Bachelor Spinster	Student	37 23	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 4 years	St. Michael's Church	91/3402		21 December 1891	Arthur B. Worthington, Student of Divinity
368	21 December 1891	James Pearce Franklin Annie Elizabeth Franklin	James Pearce Annie Elizabeth Franklin 💍 1891/2566	Bachelor Spinster	Coachbuilder Servant	24 20	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 5 months	Holy Trinity Church	91/3397	Thomas Franklin, Father	21 December 1891	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Church of England
369	22 December 1891	James Page Mary Brown	James Page Mary Brown 💍 1891/2679 Garrett Fitzgerald Mary Brown 💍 1902/1761 James Cavanagh Maggie Brown 💍 1891/2539	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 22	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 18 years	Registrar's Office	91/3434		22 December 1891	J. M. Parkinson, Registrar of Marriages
370	22 December 1891	Frank Tomlinson Johanna Gilbert	Frank Tomlinson Johanna Gilbert 💍 1891/2568	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	30 27	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 10 years	Holy Trinity Church	91/3399		22 December 1891	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Church of England
371	23 December 1891	Frank Henry Hitchings Alice Newcombe	Frank Henry Hitcheup Alice Newcombe 💍 1891/2438	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer Music Servant	26 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 13 years	St. John's Church, Latimer Square	91/3366		23 December 1891	Rev. J. Orchard, St. John's, Christchurch
372	23 December 1891	Martin Ford Slowley Mary Jane Spring	Martin Ford Elvines Mary Jane Downing 💍 1891/2486	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	20 21	Christchurch Oxford	20 years 21 years	St. Michael's Church	91/3389	Sarah Ann Slowley, Mother	23 December 1891	Rev. W. Harper, Church of England
373	23 December 1891	Henry Hobbs Christina Niven	Henry Hobbs Christina Vizer 💍 1891/2487	Bachelor Spinster	Moulder	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 21 years	St. Michael's Church	91/3390		23 December 1891	Rev. W. Harper, Church of England
374	24 December 1891	John Smyth Emma Strack	John Smyth Emma Strack 💍 1891/2493	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	27 20	Christchurch Peacock St, Christchurch	6 days 6 months	House of John Henry Strack	91/3373	John Henry Strack, Father	24 December 1891	Rev. L. M. Isitt, Wesleyan

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).