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 706

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
314	15 August 1891	Malleec Billy Baillie Emily Donaldson	Wallace Dilly Emily Donaldson 💍 1891/1159	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet maker	22 21	Ponsonby Mt Eden	14 years 18 years	Registrar's Office	91/2067	15 August 1891	J. Owen Lord Regr
315	17 August 1891	John Blake Jessie Franklin	John Blake Jessie Mill 💍 1891/1128	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	43 41	Drury Ponsonby	23 years 6 weeks	Church of England	91/2010	17 August 1891	Revd. G. Seabell Ch of England
316	17 August 1891	John Scimeach Vesta Robson	John Simcock Vesta Hobson Goodwin 💍 1891/1135	Bachelor Spinster	Setter	27 25	Raukapa Rape Raukapa Rape	1 year 20 years	Dwelling House	91/1994	17 August 1891	Revd. J. Warle Wesleyan
317	17 August 1891	Duncan Ernest James Schofield Jessie Eliza Dinger	Ernest James Schofield Jessie Eliza Singer 💍 1891/2064	Bachelor Spinster	Boot Manufacturer	32 24	Devonport Parnell	4 years 4 years	St. George's Bay	91/2818	17 August 1891	Revd. J. March Wesleyan
318	17 August 1891	Frank Cobden Emma Medd		Widower Spinster	Gentleman	30 21	Remuera Epsom	4 years 15 years	Church of St. Barnabas	91/1990	17 August 1891	Revd. G. F. Sport Ch of England
319	18 August 1891	Alexander Davidson Margaret Jessie Miller	Alexander Service Margaret Jessie Miller Sheddan 💍 1891/1177 Alexander Hardie Margaret Maggie Gemmel 💍 1891/1638	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	27 23	Remuera Ponsonby	18 years 25 years	Dwelling House	91/2033	18 August 1891	Revd. J. Lewis Congregationalist
320	18 August 1891	Edward James Mansfield Annie Easter	Edward Tom Masefield Annie Foster 💍 1891/1160 Edward Albert Isaac Annie Carter 💍 1891/1337	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	21 26	Parnell Auckland	1 year 4 weeks	Registrar's Office	91/2068	18 August 1891	J. Owen Lord Regr
321	18 August 1891	Philip Henry Filleul Annie Maxwell		Bachelor Spinster	Carter	36 35	Auckland Napier	6 years 3 years	Church of St. Matthew	91/2035	20 August 1891	Revd. H. Richard Doutre Ch 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).