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 500

District of Temuka 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
12	14 July 1891	Joseph Patrick Corcoran Annie Boyle	Joseph Corcoran Annie Boyle 💍 1891/1811	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	28 31	Temuka Temuka	3 days 6 months	St Joseph's Church	91/2534	14 July 1891	Rev. L. Faurel, Roman Catholic
13	14 July 1891	Alexander Kane Mary Wilson	Alexander Kane May Wilson 💍 1891/1732	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	32 26	Temuka Temuka	3 days 6 months	Presbyterian Church	91/2528	14 July 1891	Rev. John Waters, Presbyterian
14	14 July 1891	George Richard Velvin Ellen Emily Eliza Charteris	George Richard Velvin Eliza Charteris 💍 1891/1730	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 23	Temuka Charteris Temuka	5 years 5 years	Residence of David Charteris	91/2526	14 July 1891	Rev. John Bellow, Wesleyan
15	22 July 1891	Herbert Kelly Fanny Stokes	Herbert Kelly Fanny Ellen Stokes 💍 1891/1731	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	21 21	Rangitata Rangitata	14 years 3 months	Residence of Robert Kelly Rangitata	91/2527	22 July 1891	Rev. John Bellow, Wesleyan
16	13 August 1891	Thomas Logan Clara Palmer	Thomas Logan Clara Palmer 💍 1891/1728	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 22	Winchester Orari	2 years 3 years	Registrar Office	91/2524	13 August 1891	Registrar
17	18 August 1891	John Love Elizabeth Downan	John Sim Elizabeth Bowman 💍 1891/1733 John Lloyd Elizabeth Duffy 💍 1891/2204 John Cook Elizabeth Rosina Clark 💍 1891/412 John Weir Elizabeth Allison 💍 1891/1861	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	28 21	Temuka Temuka	3 years 3 years	Presbyterian Church	91/2529	18 August 1891	Rev. John Waters, Presbyterian
18	19 August 1891	William Henry Routledge Florence Green	William Plyer Routledge Florence Green 💍 1891/1810	Bachelor Spinster	Miller	29 29	Temuka Temuka	1 year 10 years	St Saviour's Church	91/2533	19 August 1891	Rev. W. Hamilton, Church of England
19	26 August 1891	John William Salmond Annie Graham Gutterie	John William Salmond Anne Bryham Guthrie 💍 1891/1787	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	28 29	Temuka Dunedin	2 years 5 months	Residence Thomas Luck	91/2618	26 August 1891	Rev. James Gibb, Presbyterian
20	7 September 1891	Daniel McJames Lucy Harriett Benbow	Daniel McInnes Lucy Harriett Benbow 💍 1891/1729	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 23	Temuka Temuka	5 years 7 years	Residence William Benbow Waitohi	91/2525	7 September 1891	Thomas Edgar Vince, Salvation Army

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).