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 266

District of Palmerston North 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
326	14 October 1891	Harry Clifton Rosannah Bragier	Harry Clifton Rosannah Brazier 💍 1891/2468	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 19	Bleckenham Birmingham	9 months 2 years	Registrar's Office Feilding	91/3078	James Bragier, father of bride	14 October 1891	Registrar Feilding
327	23 October 1891	Alfred Richmond Mary Lilian Rochfort	Alfred Richmond Mary Lilian Rockfort 💍 1891/2959	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	29 23	Feilding Napier	2 years 18 years	Napier	91/3749		23 October 1891	W. Beret Hovell, Napier
328	14 December 1891	Christopher Nicholson Williamina Waugh	Christopher Nicholson Anderson Williamina Waugh 💍 1891/2467	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	33 21	Napier Birmingham	3 days 7 weeks	Residence of John Sutton Waugh, Birmingham	91/3077	John Sutton Waugh, father of bride	14 December 1891	William Edmund Birks
329	23 December 1891	Peter Ringsted Rebecca Holmes	Peter Rugsted Rebecca Holmes 💍 1891/2194	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	27 20	Feilding Feilding	6 years 12 years	Residence of Henry Holmes, Feilding	91/3073	Henry Holmes, father of bride	23 December 1891	Walter Harris, Feilding
330	23 December 1891	William Henry Ford Jeanie Fraser	William Henry Poad Jeanie Fraser 💍 1891/2449	Bachelor Spinster	Miller	25 24	Feilding Feilding	12 years 10 years	Residence of Donald Fraser, Feilding	91/3075	Donald Fraser, father of bride	23 December 1891	Hugh M. Murray, Feilding
331	23 December 1891	Edward Fitz Herbert Florence Grace Gregory	Egbert Fitzherbert Florence Grace Gregory 💍 1891/2460	Bachelor Spinster	Woolsorter	28 24	Feilding Makino	9 years 11 years	Residence of Edward Gregory, Makino	91/3076	Edward Gregory, father of bride	23 December 1891	Hugh M. Murray, Feilding
332	29 December 1891	John Bowen Gordon Margaret Ada Culbertson	John Cowen Gordon Margaret Ada Cuthbertson 💍 1891/2195	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 19	Waituna West Sanson	8 years 6 months	Residence of Walter Harris, Culbertson	91/3074	Walter Harris, father of bride	29 December 1891	Walter Harris, Feilding

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).