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 188

District of 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
566	2 October 1891	Thomas O'Brien Bridget Alice Connell	Thomas OBrien Bridget OConnell 💍 1891/2380	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver Domestic	29 27	Waimangarara Fairdown	3 years 17 months	[illegible] Catholic Church	91/3309		2 October 1891	Thomas Walshe
567	2 November 1891	John Hardley Mary Elizabeth Parkes	John Hardley Mary Elizabeth Pooley Woodhead 💍 1891/2941	Bachelor Spinster	Pharmacist	26 23	Westport Charleston	8 years 23 years	Church of England, Charleston	91/3755		2 November 1891	James E. Cullen
568	6 November 1891	Bernard Hands Augusta Evans	Bernard Hands Augusta Petus 💍 1891/2387	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	23 22	Cape Foulwind Cape Foulwind	25 years 4 years	Registrar's Office, Westport	91/3315		6 November 1891	The Registrar
569	13 November 1891	Michael Roche Joanna Cook	Michael Roache Emma Cook 💍 1891/2381	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	29 19	Westport Westport	4 years 6 years	Church of England, Cape Foulwind	91/3310	Walter John Cook, father	14 November 1891	Thomas Walshe
570	21 November 1891	Alexander Gollan Jessie Graham Hill	Alexander Gollan Beatrice Jessie Maud Hill 💍 1891/2388	Bachelor Spinster	Shipping	40 19	Ngakawau Ngakawau	6 months 6 months	Registrar's Office, Westport	91/3316	Jessie Graham, mother	21 November 1891	The Registrar
571	8 December 1891	William John Solomon Sarah Caroline Solomon	William John Solomon Caroline Katrine Sorensen 💍 1891/2383	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	25 20	Westport Westport	17 years 3 years	Residence of Simon Solomon	91/3312	Simon Solomon, brother	8 December 1891	James Wrigley
572	10 December 1891	William Hand Elizabeth Anne Harris	William Alfred Flavell Elizabeth Ann Harris 💍 1891/2384	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Schoolmistress	26 27	Denniston Denniston	6 years 3 years	Residence of William Hand	91/3313		10 December 1891	James Wrigley
573	22 December 1891	George Evans Hannah Tracey	George Groves Hannah Tracey 💍 1891/2389	Bachelor Widow	Miner	38 27	Foulwind Westport	2 months 6 months	Registrar's Office, Westport	91/3317		22 December 1891	The Registrar
574	24 December 1891	Patrick McHail Rhoda Phillips	Patrick McGarl Rhoda Philips 💍 1891/2386	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic Servant	29 21	Denniston Denniston	15 years 1 year	Church of England, Denniston	91/3314		24 December 1891	John Olphert

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).