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 240

District of Masterton 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
44	6 October 1891	Richard Charles Low Mary Ann Greathead	Richard Charles Cowper Mary Ann Greathead 💍 1891/2297	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 23	Masterton Masterton	7 weeks 7 months	Woods Home, Masterton	91/3203	9 October 1891	Rev. Robt. Wood, Presbyterian Minister
45	9 October 1891	Charles Morris Annie Hansen	Charles Morris Annie Hansen 💍 1891/2536	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 21	Pahiatua Newman	18 months 7 months	Ideas Home, Pahiatua	91/3195	13 October 1891	Rev. James Saunders, Wesleyan Minister
46	9 October 1891	Sydney Parsons Biggins Christina Lydia Biggins		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 23	Eketahuna Eketahuna	7 days 7 years	Home of the Father, Eketahuna	91/3200	13 October 1891	Rev. John Dakes, Wesleyan Minister
47	9 October 1891	John Smith Ellen Trillick	John Smith Helen Black 💍 1891/2724 John Smith Alice Maud Blackburn 💍 1891/3504	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 21	Matarawa Tinui Ridge	6 years 6 years	Home of Mr Trillick, Tinui Ridge	91/3204	13 October 1891	Rev. Robert Wood, Presbyterian Minister
48	12 October 1891	William French Laura Sophiah French		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 24	Masterton Masterton	7 months 7 years	Home of Applicant	91/3205	15 October 1891	Rev. Robert Wood, Presbyterian Minister
49	20 October 1891	Henry Dunn Eliza Strahan	Henry Dunn Ellen Saunders 💍 1891/2301	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	45 17	Masterton Masterton	3 days 3 days	Shops, Masterton	91/3207	24 October 1891	John Bagge, Registrar
50	26 October 1891	Charles Weston Wilhelmina Jane Wingate	Charles Weston Willena Jessie Wingate 💍 1891/2296	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	27 23	Alfredton Holder Alfredton	1 year 10 months 10 years	Home of Applicant	91/3202	29 October 1891	Rev. William Rouse, Wesleyan Minister
51	27 October 1891	Thomas Maxwell Edith Alice Wilson		Bachelor Spinster	Draper	40 22	Masterton Masterton	10 days 4 weeks	Wesleyan Church, Masterton	91/3201	17 November 1891	Rev. John Dakes, Wesleyan Minister
52	2 November 1891	James Casemayl Maggie Browne	James Cavanagh Maggie Brown 💍 1891/2539	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	33 33	Turipuna Masterton	10 days 7 days	Home of Applicant	91/3198	2 November 1891	Rev. John McKeena, Roman Catholic Priest
53	3 November 1891	Thomas Robert Hood Frances Ethel Atkinson		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 22	Eketahuna Eketahuna	4 years 3 years	Premises of Applicant	91/3196	30 November 1891	Rev. W. B. Paige, Church of England Minister

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).