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 326

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 December 1891 Registrar J. Mellcott, Registrar

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

21 October 1891

Herbert Thompson
Kathleen Edith Watts

Herbert Thompson
Kathleen Edith Watts
💍 1891/2144

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

26
19

Manukau Heads
Do

at the dwelling house of Charles Miller at Manukau Heads
12 years

dwelling house of Charles Miller at Manukau Heads

91/2973

Charlotte Watts, mother

21 October 1891

Rev. J. Hazeldean, Ch. of England

No	63
Date of Notice	21 October 1891
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Thompson	Kathleen Edith Watts
	💍 1891/2144
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	26	19
Dwelling Place	Manukau Heads	Do
Length of Residence	at the dwelling house of Charles Miller at Manukau Heads	12 years
Marriage Place	dwelling house of Charles Miller at Manukau Heads
Folio	91/2973
Consent	Charlotte Watts, mother
Date of Certificate	21 October 1891
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Hazeldean, Ch. of England

23 October 1891

William Adams
Charlotte Watts

William Adams
Charlotte Worth
💍 1891/2145

Widower
Spinster

Farmer

34
24

Puni
Manukau

9 years
4 years

St. Brides Church at Manukau

91/2974

23 October 1891

Rev. Mr. Rober, Ch. of England

No	64
Date of Notice	23 October 1891
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Adams	Charlotte Watts
BDM Match (90%)	William Adams	Charlotte Worth
	💍 1891/2145
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	34	24
Dwelling Place	Puni	Manukau
Length of Residence	9 years	4 years
Marriage Place	St. Brides Church at Manukau
Folio	91/2974
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 October 1891
Officiating Minister	Rev. Mr. Rober, Ch. of England

2 November 1891

Hamilton Vetch Rutherford
Agnes Rebecca Makgill

Hamilton Vetch Rutherfurd
Agnes Rebekah Makgill
💍 1891/1981

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

26
24

Manukau
Do

3 days
10 years

in the dwelling house of Capt. Makgill at Manukau

91/2975

2 November 1891

Rev. Mr. McCallum, Presbyterian

No	65
Date of Notice	2 November 1891
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hamilton Vetch Rutherford	Agnes Rebecca Makgill
BDM Match (91%)	Hamilton Vetch Rutherfurd	Agnes Rebekah Makgill
	💍 1891/1981
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	26	24
Dwelling Place	Manukau	Do
Length of Residence	3 days	10 years
Marriage Place	in the dwelling house of Capt. Makgill at Manukau
Folio	91/2975
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 November 1891
Officiating Minister	Rev. Mr. McCallum, Presbyterian

7 November 1891

William James Sim
Ann Camble McInnes

William James Irwin
Ann Campble McInnes
💍 1891/2142

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

28
24

Auckland
Pollock

28 years
20 years

at the dwelling house of Peter McInnes at Pollock

91/2971

7 November 1891

Rev. Mr. Findlay, Presbyterian

No	66
Date of Notice	7 November 1891
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William James Sim	Ann Camble McInnes
BDM Match (87%)	William James Irwin	Ann Campble McInnes
	💍 1891/2142
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Pollock
Length of Residence	28 years	20 years
Marriage Place	at the dwelling house of Peter McInnes at Pollock
Folio	91/2971
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 November 1891
Officiating Minister	Rev. Mr. Findlay, Presbyterian

21 November 1891

Charles Bicknell
Larmia Julia Watts

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

30
24

Manukau
Do

30 years
27 years

Wesleyan Church Manukau

91/2970

21 November 1891

Rev. J. J. Carr, Wesleyan

No	67
Date of Notice	21 November 1891
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Bicknell	Larmia Julia Watts
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	30	24
Dwelling Place	Manukau	Do
Length of Residence	30 years	27 years
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Church Manukau
Folio	91/2970
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 November 1891
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. J. Carr, 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 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).