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 274

District of Wanganui 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
60	12 October 1891	Joseph John Reafell Eleanor Angela Meagher	Joseph John Peapell Eleanor Angela Meagher 💍 1891/2202	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 30	Mangamahoe Springvale	6 years 4 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	91/3058	12 October 1891	F. H. Woon, Registrar
61	12 October 1891	George Smith Russell Mary Ann Greenway	George Smith Russell Mary Ann Greenway 💍 1891/2178	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 23	Goat Valley Eastown	25 years 12 months	In the residence of R. H. [illegible] Greenway, Eastown	91/3050	12 October 1891	R. Hermon, Church of England
62	12 October 1891	James MacDonald Wilhelmina Dingwall MacAulay	James MacDonald Wilhelmina Wingwall Macaulay 💍 1891/2196	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	36 23	Wanganui Wanganui	36 years 3 years	In the residence of F. H. [illegible] Harwell Street, Wanganui	91/3052	12 October 1891	James Treadwell, Presbyterian
63	14 October 1891	Thomas Abbott Catherine Parker	Thomas Abbott Catherine Parkes 💍 1891/2179	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 30	Wanganui Springvale	3 days 15 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	91/3059	14 October 1891	F. H. Woon, Registrar
64	20 October 1891	Patrick Scully Charlotte Vivia Wilson	Patrick Scally Charlotte Vivian 💍 1891/2180	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 27	Wanganui Wanganui	13 years 27 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	91/3060	20 October 1891	F. H. Woon, Registrar
65	27 October 1891	Joseph Thomas Bevan Jane Hearn	Joseph Thomas Bevan Greatbatch Jane Hearn Nathan 💍 1891/2189	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	28 26	Wanganui Wanganui	7 days 5 weeks	In the Church of England, Marton	91/3051	27 October 1891	R. Hermon, Church of England
66	29 October 1891	William James Treadwell Rosa Edith Todd		Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	27 26	Castle Cliff Wanganui	4 months 11 days	In the residence of Rev. James Treadwell	91/3053	29 October 1891	James Treadwell, Presbyterian
67	31 October 1891	Ben Porter Maria Wilhelmina Wahle		Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	37 27	Wanganui Aramoho	6 days 5 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	91/3061	31 October 1891	F. H. Woon, Registrar
68	16 November 1891	Robert Harrison Jackson Sarah Ann Wilkes	Robert Alexander McDonald Sarah Ann Wilks 💍 1891/2169	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	21 25	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days 25 years	In the residence of F. H. [illegible] Liverpool Street, Wanganui	91/3048	16 November 1891	H. H. Newbury, 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).