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 506

District of Ashburton 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
694	8 July 1891	William Clark Hannah Grace	William Clark Annie Grace 💍 1891/1720	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Domestic Servant	21 years 18 years	Hinds Winslow	5 years 10 years	Roman Catholic Church at Ashburton	91/2517	Patrick Grace, Father	8 July 1891	Revd. P. Chastegnon
695	10 July 1891	Thomas Rabbitt Kate Kennedy Jacobs	Thomas Rollitt Kate Kennedy Jacobs 💍 1891/1670	Bachelor Widow	Miller	39 years 23 years	Ashburton Hororata	1 year 6 months 18 months	St. John's Church, Tinwald at Hororata	91/2491		11 July 1891	Revd. Thos. Hodgson, Malvern
696	16 July 1891	Edward Cook Sarah Eleanor Morse	Edward Cook Sarah Eleanor Worne 💍 1891/1718	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	24 years 16 years	Ashburton Ashburton	3 days 13 years	Presbyterian Manse	91/2515	Father	16 July 1891	Revd. A. M. Bastin
697	17 July 1891	Edward Lawson Elizabeth Vanderest	Edward Green Elizabeth Handcock 💍 1891/1719	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	47 years 38 years	Mayfield Mayfield	10 years 2 years	Private Dwellinghouse of Robert Vanderest at Mayfield	91/2516		17 July 1891	Revd. J. W. Sandilands
698	18 July 1891	Thomas Richard Dalley Kate Austram	Moses Richard Dalley Kate Auckram 💍 1891/1723	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Domestic Servant	31 years 19 years	Ashburton Ashburton	11 years 5 years	Private Dwellinghouse of Mary Dalley at Hampstead	91/2520	Annie Austram, mother	21 July 1891	Revd. James Cocker
699	27 July 1891	Robert Ireland Lizzie Jordan	Robert Cleland Lizzie Sheridan 💍 1891/1725	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	30 years 26 years	Makanui Makanui	7 years 4 years	Presbyterian Parsonage	91/2522		27 July 1891	Revd. Samuel Lawry
700	13 August 1891	James Rice Mary Josephine Patton	James Nee Mary Josephine Patton 💍 1891/1721	Bachelor Widow	Contractor Hotel Keeper	31 years 31 years	Methven Methven	12 years 13 years	Roman Catholic Church at Ashburton	91/2518		13 August 1891	Revd. P. Chastegnon
701	2 September 1891	John William Wardley Elizabeth Addis	John William Hartley Elizabeth Addis 💍 1891/1722	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber Shop Assistant	29 years 30 years	Ashburton Ashburton	11 years 12 years	Primitive Methodist Church at Ashburton	91/2519	George Addis, Father	2 September 1891	Revd. James Cocker
702	22 September 1891	Edward Enead Catherine Augusta Williamson	Edward Clucas Catherine Augusta Shimmin 💍 1891/1724	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Schoolmistress	36 years 33 years	Seafield Seafield	14 years 2 months	Primitive Methodist Church at Newland	91/2521		25 September 1891	Revd. James Cocker

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).