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 710

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 July 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
282	17 July 1891	Ernest Elliott Bewick Jane Douglas McKenzie	Ernest Elliott Jane Douglas Longley 💍 1891/1124	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	21 21	Kamo Kamo	13 years 10 months	Dwelling of George [illegible]	91/2006	17 July 1891	Revd. F. Berry, Wesleyan
283	17 July 1891	Albert Henry Cooper Amelia Bucknell	Albert Henry Cooper Amelia Bushell 💍 1891/1245	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 18	Epsom Onehunga	6 years Auckland 11 years Auckland	Registrar's Office Auckland	91/2058	17 July 1891	J. Swan Lord, Registrar
284	20 July 1891	William Ernest Bedford Mary Jane McEvoy	William Carter Mary Jane McEvoy 💍 1891/1918	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 23	Western Springs Newton	22 years 23 years	Church of St Benedict	91/2768	20 July 1891	Revd. F. C. Downey, R. Catholic
285	21 July 1891	Jacob Heinrich Laessner Wright Catherine		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 27	Buckland Mangere	15 years Buckland 17 years Mangere	Dwelling of Mr. Thankful	91/2003	21 July 1891	Revd. M. Rickard, Ch. of England
286	22 July 1891	Joseph Creighton Ellen Darroch Nicholson	Joseph Crabb Ellen Davies Nicholson 💍 1891/1134	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	32 34	Devonport Devonport	9 years Devonport 24 years Devonport	Dwelling of [illegible] Homeslick	91/1993	23 July 1891	Revd. Geo. Sell, Presbyterian
287	23 July 1891	Spencer William Pilcher Sarah Brown Pilcher			Plasterer	49 48	Auckland Auckland	16 years 16 years	Shall, East St. Ponsonby	91/2009	23 July 1891	Revd. E. Bishop, Ch. of England
288	23 July 1891	Wesley Bragg Pilcher Emily Spencer		Spinster	Manager N.Z. Dairy Co.	43 32	Mt. Albert Mt. Albert	6 years Mt. Albert 18 years Epsom	Dwelling of Robert Peck	91/2045	23 July 1891	Revd. J. Simmonds, Wesleyan
289	24 July 1891	Thomas Miller Ada Marcelle McKenzie	Thomas Miller Ida Marcella McKenzie 💍 1891/1125	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	23 20	Ponsonby Ponsonby	6 years Ponsonby 6 years Franklin Road	Dwelling of Mr. Jane McKenzie	91/2007	24 July 1891	Revd. F. Berry, Wesleyan

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).