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 158

District of Rangiora 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
661	2 October 1891	Alexander Watson Annie Elizabeth Barnes	Alexander Watson Annie Elizabeth Barnett 💍 1891/2412	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	24 25	Rangiora Rangiora	23 years 2 years	Residence of Mr. Barnes, Rangiora	91/3340		2 October 1891	Rev. Alfred Peters
662	10 October 1891	Joseph Henry Thomas Kate Redmond	Joseph Henry Thomas Kate Redmond 💍 1891/2413	Bachelor Spinster	Shearer Domestic Servant	25 27	Rangiora Rangiora	3 days 3 days	Office of Deputy Registrar, Rangiora	91/3341		10 October 1891	Deputy Registrar
663	12 October 1891	Alexander Cochrane Jessie Begg	Alexander Cochrane Jessie Begg 💍 1891/2858	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	26 22	Rangiora Ashley	3 days 18 months	Residence of Mr. Begg, Ashley	91/3813		12 October 1891	Rev. Richard South
664	11 November 1891	Charles Alfred Batchelor Hannah Sophia Thompson	Charles Alfred Batchelor Hannah Sophia Thompson 💍 1891/2414	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	24 21	Ashley Ashley	24 years 1 year	Office of Deputy Registrar, Ashley	91/3342		11 November 1891	Deputy Registrar
665	25 November 1891	Arthur Tomlinson Jessie Robertson Bank	Arthur Tomlinson Jessie Robertson Banks 💍 1891/2797	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher not any	29 19	Christchurch Ashley	6 weeks 19 years	Residence of Mr. Banks, Ashley	91/3703	Daniel Bank, father	25 November 1891	Rev. Richard South
666	19 December 1891	Richard Thomas Pope Agnes Matilda Reeves	Richard Thomas Pope Agnes Matilda Reeves 💍 1891/2416	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer not any	24 21	Waikuku Rangiora	20 years 5 years	Residence of Mr. Reeves, Rangiora	91/3344		19 December 1891	Rev. W. B. Madden
667	22 December 1891	George Geddes Sarah Ann Watkins	George Geddis Sarah Ann Watkins 💍 1891/2442	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer not any	30 28	Rangiora Rangiora	11 years 28 years England	Church of England, Rangiora	91/3347		22 December 1891	Rev. W. E. Gillam
668	22 December 1891	Frank Albury Frankham Mary Ann Boreham	Frank Alvany Grantham Mary Ann Bonham 💍 1891/2435	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Domestic Servant	24 27	Rangiora Rangiora	1 year 10 years England	Church of England, Rangiora	91/3346		22 December 1891	Rev. W. E. Gillam
669	23 December 1891	Henry Vincent Heyche Elizabeth Wording	Henry Vincent Styche Elizabeth Wooding 💍 1891/2424	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk not any	26 23	Rangiora Rangiora	3 days 3 days England	Church of England, Rangiora	91/3345		23 December 1891	Rev. W. E. Gillam
670	31 December 1891	Charles Hagley Harriet Nette	Charles Hagley Harriet Witte 💍 1891/2415	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer not any	21 21	Waikuku Woodend	2 years 21 years	Office of Registrar, Rangiora	91/3343		31 December 1891	Deputy Registrar

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).