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 648

District of Wanganui 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
40	7 July 1891	John Roache Mary Mullins	John Roache Mary Mullins 💍 1891/1837	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 25	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days 3 days	In the Roman Catholic Church, Wanganui	91/2140	7 July 1891	F. R. Kirk, Roman Catholic
41	7 July 1891	John Daywell Elizabeth Hannah Tarrant		Bachelor Spinster	Baker	23 23	Wanganui Collingwood	10 yrs 12 yrs	In the Residence of Mr. Millington, Collingwood, Wanganui	91/2153	7 July 1891	H. R. Dewstury, Wesleyan
42	15 July 1891	James Rapanski Reid Sarah Ann Roscoe	James Alexander Reid Sarah Ann Ruscoe 💍 1891/1826	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 21	No 2 Line Fordell	24 yrs 6 yrs	In the Matarawa Church, No 2 Line	91/2153	15 July 1891	R. Hermon, Church of England
43	18 July 1891	William Burrell Ellen Catherine Harris	William Burrell Ellen Catherine Harris 💍 1891/1828	Bachelor Spinster	Horsemaker	25 21	Wanganui Hillside	25 yrs 5 mos	In the residence of Mr. Burrell, River View, Wanganui	91/2154	18 July 1891	F. C. Tudor, Church of England
44	23 July 1891	John Bellingham Annie Emma Hooper	John Bellingham Annie Emma Hooper 💍 1891/1821	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	26 22	Wanganui Wanganui	2 mos 20 yrs	In the Matarawa Church, Matarawa	91/2148	23 July 1891	J. W. Chapman, Church of England
45	27 July 1891	John Kifro Mary Elizabeth Davison	John Nixon Mary Elizabeth Davidson 💍 1891/1817 John Dickie Mary Elizabeth Johnson 💍 1892/384	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	24 22	Wanganui Wanganui	10 yrs 16 yrs	In the residence of Mr. Dailey, Mathieson	91/2144	27 July 1891	H. R. Dewstury, Wesleyan
46	30 July 1891	Marcus Frederick Field Clara Jane Kitchen	Marcus Frederick Field Clara Jane Kitchen 💍 1891/1822	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 22	Davidson Road Wanganui	1 mos 14 years	In the Church, Shakespeare Road	91/2149	30 July 1891	F. C. Tudor, Church of England
47	30 July 1891	Stewart Davison Ottilia Thurtell	Stuart Davison Ottilia Kurth 💍 1891/1820	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 20	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days 14 yrs	In the house of Julius Thurtell, Wanganui	91/2151	30 July 1891	G. C. W. Taylor, Church of England
48	1 August 1891	Richard Storman Mansfield Caroline Bernice Hammond	Richard Plowman Ernest Mansfield Constance Bernice Hammond 💍 1891/1831	Bachelor Spinster	Horsemaker	26 18	Wanganui Wanganui	10 mos 5 mos	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	91/2152	1 August 1891	F. C. Woon, Registrar
49	4 August 1891	Samuel Gregory Hughes Juliana Rendell	Samuel Gregory Harris Juliana Rendall 💍 1891/1818	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	32 20	Wanganui Wanganui	32 yrs 12 yrs	In the residence of John Rendell, Wanganui	91/2145	4 August 1891	H. R. Dewstury, Wesleyan
50	7 August 1891	Harry Linsins Maud Tudor		Bachelor Spinster	Ranger	32 32	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days 3 days	In the Church of England, Wanganui	91/2150	7 August 1891	T. M. Tudor, Church of England
51	7 August 1891	William Greenfield Priscilla Rebecca Picking	William Crenfeldt Priscilla Rebecca Pickering 💍 1891/1832	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	32 21	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days 3 days	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	91/2158	7 August 1891	F. C. Woon, Registrar

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).