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 464

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 September 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
291	14 September 1891	Hector Finch McKay Lucy Ann Johnston	Hector Finch McKay Lucy Ann Johnston 💍 1891/1789	Bachelor Spinster	Horse Trainer	23 23	St. Kilda Caversham	3 days 3 days	In the house of Revd Daniel Dutton	91/2612		14 September 1891	Revd D. Dutton, Presbyterian Minister
292	14 September 1891	William Ballantyne Mary Jane Haynes	William Ballantyne Mary Jane Haynes 💍 1891/1654	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	27 22	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 years	In the Trinity Church, Dunedin	91/2574		14 September 1891	Revd W. C. Oliver, Wesleyan Minister
293	14 September 1891	John Thornton Stewart Emily Ethel Jones	John Thornton Stewart Emily Ethel Jones 💍 1891/1768	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	36 29	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 15 years	In St John the Evangelist Church	91/2615		14 September 1891	Revd Henry Belcher, Church of England Minister
294	15 September 1891	John Henry Gay Letitia Isabella Busch	John Henry Gay Letitia Isabella Busch 💍 1891/2051	Bachelor Widow	Manufacturer	39 36	Dunedin Dunedin	20 years 20 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages	91/2659		15 September 1891	W. J. Hall, Registrar of Marriages
295	15 September 1891	Arthur Ernest Adam Elizabeth White	Arthur Ernest Adam Elizabeth White 💍 1891/1771	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	22 26	Dunedin Dunedin	19 years 1 week	In the house of James Miles, Hanover Street	91/2618		15 September 1891	Revd H. Saunders, Congregational Minister
296	15 September 1891	John Wood Mary Ann Hyams	John Wood Mary Annie Hyams 💍 1891/1749	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	20 22	Dunedin Dunedin	20 years 8 years	In Knox Church	91/2646	Norman Wood, father of minor	15 September 1891	Revd Dr Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
297	17 September 1891	James Stewart Ellen Louisa Bragg	James Stewart Ellen Louisa Bragg 💍 1891/1751	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Builder	26 20	Dunedin Dunedin	26 years 17 years	In the house of Revd Dr Stuart	91/2648	Ellen Bragg, mother of minor	17 September 1891	Revd Dr Stuart, Presbyterian 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).