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 342

District of Auckland 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
418	4 November 1891	Richard Dehar Rebecca Ledward	Richard Debor Augusta Rebecca Lediard 💍 1891/2014	Bachelor Spinster	Lumper	57 30	Auckland Newton	6 years 8 years	Registrar's Office, Shortland Street	91/2941	J. Owen Lord, Regr.	5 November 1891	J. Owen Lord, Regr.
419	5 November 1891	George Clark Bertha Rebecca Fourtstep	George Clark Bertha Rebecca Peters 💍 1891/159 George Clark Catherine Grant 💍 1891/110	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	20 17	Newton Arch Hill, Auckland	8 years 6 years	Karengahape Hall	91/2914	Ellen Clark, mother	5 November 1891	Adjt. E. Bishop, Salvationist
420	5 November 1891	George Mills Margaret Bremner	George Mills Barclay Margaret Bremner 💍 1891/2015	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	38 33	Remuera Parnell, Auckland	6 years 3 months	Registrar's Office	91/2942	J. Owen Lord, Regr.	5 November 1891	J. Owen Lord, Regr.
421	6 November 1891	Joseph Miller Florence Armstead		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 24	Pensrose Pensrose	6 years 6 years	Dwelling of Thomas Armstead	91/2862	William Armstead	6 November 1891	Revd. J. Chew, Congregationalist
422	6 November 1891	William George Ivel Amy Vicentigue	William George Ivil Amy Montague Cunninance 💍 1891/2808	Bachelor Spinster	Stone Dresser	22 21	Auckland Auckland	23 years 21 years	St. Matthews Church	91/3438	William Vicentigue	6 November 1891	Revd. J. Sutten, Ch. of England
423	6 November 1891	Andrew Meeson Alice Ingram	Andrew Alexander Potts Alice Ingham 💍 1891/2762	Bachelor Spinster	Sugar Boiler	29 20	Chelsea Tamaki	2 years Auckland 2 years Auckland	Dwelling of John Ingram	91/3691	John Ingram, father	6 November 1891	Revd. M. Leyard, Methodist
424	7 November 1891	Harrison Dean Louisa Dean	Harrison Douglas Louisa O'Hern 💍 1891/2126	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	34 22	Auckland Auckland	8 months 32 years Parnell	The Roman Catholic Church	91/2882	William Dean	7 November 1891	Revd. J. M. Lendrian, R. Catholic
425	7 November 1891	William Robert McCell Mary Pitt	William Roberton Meadows Ada Mary Kite 💍 1892/580	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	34 20	Coromandel Arch Hill	20 years 19 years	Meeting House, Kingsland Rd	91/2901	William Pitt	7 November 1891	F. W. Greenwood, Ch. of Christ

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).