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 524

District of Christchurch 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
221	16 July 1891	Alexander Jack Kerr Jane Allender	Alexander Jack Ker Jane Allender 💍 1891/1608	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	32 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 11 years	House of M. John Allender, Belfast	91/2428		16 July 1891	Rev R. Erwin, Presbyterian
222	20 July 1891	Thomas Henry Atkinson Jessie Black	Thomas Henry Atkinson Jessie Henry Black 💍 1891/1639	Bachelor Spinster	Fitter	21 22	Christchurch Christchurch	16 years 4 years	House of Res. J. Black, Lichfield Street	91/2461		20 July 1891	Rev J. Slimlie, Presbyterian
223	22 July 1891	Robert Hack Florence Fanny Peagram	Robert Hack Florence Fanny Peagram 💍 1891/1526	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	32 19	Christchurch Christchurch	32 years 19 years	House of C. H. Peagram	91/2445	C. H. Peagram, father	22 July 1891	Rev R. J. Murray, Wesleyan
224	24 July 1891	Patrick Commons Hannah Herlihy	Patrick Commons Hannah Herlihy 💍 1891/1535	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Hotelkeeper	29 28	Christchurch Christchurch	18 years 18 years	Roman Catholic Church	91/2453		24 July 1891	Rev J. Cummings, Roman Catholic
225	25 July 1891	Charles Henry Webb Adelaide Ellen Spratt	Charles Henry Webb Adelaide Ellen 💍 1891/1523	Bachelor Spinster	Stockman Domestic	23 23	Christchurch Christchurch	12 years 7 years	St. Michael's Church	91/2442		25 July 1891	Rev W. Harper, Church of England
226	27 July 1891	Thomas Smith Bridget Philomena Donnelly	Thomas Smith Bridget Philomena Donnelly 💍 1891/1534	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser Dressmaker	26 24	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 13 years	Roman Catholic Church, Barbados Street	91/2452		27 July 1891	Rev J. Cummings, Roman Catholic
227	28 July 1891	Alfred Shadbolt Agnes Mary Popplewell	Alfred Shadbolt Agnes Mary Popplewell 💍 1891/1630	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 years	Church of Good Shepherd, Linwood	91/2475		28 July 1891	Rev H. J. Cougdon Gilbert, Church of England
228	30 July 1891	Christian Jorgensen Annie Christina Rosendale	Christian Jorgensen Sonne Annie Christina Rosendale 💍 1891/1603	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	32 25	Christchurch Christchurch	1 month 10 years	St. Saviour's Church, Templeton	91/2424		30 July 1891	Rev F. Knowles, Church of England

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).