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 700

District of Auckland 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
362	26 September 1891	Alfred Brady Mary Ann Collett	Alfred Brady Mary Ann Moran 💍 1891/2996	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 24	Otautau Otautau	2 years 1 year	Roman Catholic Church	91/2049	26 September 1891	Rev. M. D. Grace R. Catholic
363	28 September 1891	James Bennington Caroline Rice	James Binning Perston Caroline Stace 💍 1891/1145	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	26 26	Auckland Christchurch	8 months 8 months	Registrar's Office Christchurch	91/2077	28 September 1891	J. Raven Lawson Regr
364	28 September 1891	Franz Roering Isabelle Lockington	Franz Roering Isabella Lockington 💍 1891/1168	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	28 28	Helensville Helensville	3 years 3 years	Dwelling of Robert Forbes Russell	91/2025	28 September 1891	Rev. S. B. Mercer Presbyterian
365	29 September 1891	John Philip Holder Alice Barber Poole	John Philpot Alice Barbara Poole 💍 1891/154	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	24 23	Ponsonby Auckland	3 years 6 years	Church of St. Thomas	91/2909	29 September 1891	Rev. Wm. Dalziel Ch of England
366	29 September 1891	Charles Headland Emma Grace Annie Mary Ockenden	Charles Newland Emma Grace Annie Mary Ockenden 💍 1891/1146	Bachelor Spinster	Theatrical Agent	28 24	Auckland Howick	5 years 5 years	Registrar's Office Auckland	91/2078	29 September 1891	J. Lawson Regr
367	29 September 1891	William Edward Keyle Florence Ada Smith	William Edward Goode Florence Maud Heyward 💍 1891/1946	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 26	Whangarei Auckland	2 years 8 months	Registrar's Office Auckland	91/2079	29 September 1891	J. Lawson Regr
368	30 September 1891	William Francis Clemow Catherine Craft	William Francis Clemon Catherine Crago 💍 1891/1963 William Matheson Catherine Fraser 💍 1892/313 William James Sewell Catherine Cochrane 💍 1891/2599	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 36	Christchurch Otautau	3 years 1 year	The Wesleyan Church	91/2865	30 September 1891	Rev. G. W. Lee Wesleyan
369	30 September 1891	John Patience Ockenden Jessie Clark	John Guthrie Jessie Clark 💍 1891/2763	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	39 25	Auckland Auckland	8 years 10 years	Dwelling of Samuel Patterson	91/3692	30 September 1891	Rev. P. B. Monro Presbyterian

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).