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 472

District of [illegible] 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
239	28 July 1891	Robert Potter Annie Gartley	Robert Potter Annie Gartley 💍 1891/1759	Widower Spinster	Carter	34 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	30 years 2 years	In the house of Revd Dr Stuart	91/2632		28 July 1891	Revd Dr Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
240	28 July 1891	William Godfrey Christina Kay	William Godfrey Christina Kay 💍 1891/1742	Bachelor Spinster	Papermaker	22 years 19 years	Maori Hill Woodend	10 years 6 years	In the house of Revd Dr Stuart	91/2639	Janet Kay, mother of minor	28 July 1891	Revd Dr Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
241	30 July 1891	Ebdon Piper Laine Agnes Cuthbertson	Ebdon Piper Paine Agnes Cuthbertson 💍 1891/1715	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	23 years 22 years	South Dunedin South Dunedin	10 years 8 years	In the house of William [illegible]	91/2588		30 July 1891	Revd G. W. J. Spence, Wesleyan Minister
242	30 July 1891	William Henry Bourne Clara Jane Allan	William Henry Bourne Clara Jane Allan 💍 1891/1652	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	35 years 37 years	Dunedin Dunedin	5 years 2 months	In the house of Samuel Charles Phillips, Stuart Street	91/2573		30 July 1891	Revd H. C. Oliver, Wesleyan Minister
243	1 August 1891	Robert Lawrence Charlotte Bradish	Robert Laurence Charlotte Bradish 💍 1891/1761	Widower Widow	Laborer	39 years 29 years	Mornington Mornington	60 days 13 years	In the house of Revd Dr Stuart	91/2634		1 August 1891	Revd Dr Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
244	3 August 1891	Henry Walter Le Brun Jessie Anderson Myles Grant	Henry Walter Le Brun Jessie Anderson Myles Grant 💍 1891/1765	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	27 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 7 years	In the house of John Robb, Belleknowes	91/2638		3 August 1891	Revd Dr Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
245	3 August 1891	Andrew Macdonald Murray Mary Annie Woods	Andrew Macdonald Murray Mary Annie Woods 💍 1891/1772	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	24 years 25 years	Dunedin Dunedin	18 years 25 years	In St Joseph's Cathedral	91/2619		3 August 1891	Revd P. Lynch, Roman Catholic Priest

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).