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 474

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
225	10 July 1891	Henry Poile Vezey Mary Ann Meder	Henry Poile Vezey Mary Anne Meder 💍 1891/1709	Bachelor Spinster	Poulterer	57 23	Dunedin Dunedin	29 years 23 years	In St Pauls Church	91/2582	10 July 1891	Revd S. R. York, Church of England Minister
226	14 July 1891	David Laurence Wilhelmina Simpson Macrae	David Lawrence Wilhelmina Simpson Macrae 💍 1891/1782	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 28	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 7 years	In the house of John Black, Leithgate	91/2628	14 July 1891	Revd D. Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
227	15 July 1891	James Stewart Newton Margaret Ellen Guttle	James Stewart Newton Margaret Ellen Cuttle 💍 1891/1741	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Builder	32 28	Dunedin Dunedin, Bon Accord	26 years Bon Accord Dunedin	In the house of Edward Whitaker, Regent Road	91/2630	15 July 1891	Revd D. Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
228	15 July 1891	Kenneth McKenzie Mary Cronk	Kenneth McKenzie Mary Crouth 💍 1891/1785	Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper	32 26	South Dunedin South Dunedin	2 years 1 year	In the house of Kenneth McKenzie	91/2608	15 July 1891	Revd G. Hunt, Roman Catholic Priest
229	17 July 1891	John Hannan Martha Kennedy	John Hannan Martha Kennedy 💍 1891/1784	Bachelor Widow		40 38	South Dunedin South Dunedin	2 years 2 years	In St Patricks Church	91/2607	17 July 1891	Revd G. Hunt, Roman Catholic Priest
230	18 July 1891	Lindsay Dymock Annie Mary Beal	Lindsay Dymock Annie Mary Beal 💍 1891/2643	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 29	Dunedin Dunedin	16 years 24 years	In the Methodist Church, Dundas Street	91/3549	18 July 1891	Revd P. W. Jones, Methodist Minister
231	22 July 1891	William Tyrell Annie Beaton Allan	William Tyrrell Annie Beaton Allan 💍 1891/1777	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	23 26	North East Valley Maori Hill	10 years 9 years	In the house of John Allan	91/2606	22 July 1891	Revd J. S. Smith, 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).