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 791

District of Gore Quarter ending 30 June 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
6	6 June 1891	James Fulcher Harvey Elizabeth McKenzie	James Fulcher Harvey Elizabeth McKenzie 💍 1891/1077	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 27	Chatton Gore	14 years 20 years	Residence of Mr Peter Ramsay at Gore	91/1859		6 June 1891	Rev. Peter Ramsay, Presbyterian Clergyman, Chatton, Gore
16	16 June 1891	Albert Woolliams Bessie Baggett	Albert Woolhams Bessie Baggett 💍 1891/1078	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	33 31	Gore Gore	3 days 6 weeks	English Church at Gore	91/1860		16 June 1891	Rev. Sydney Hawthorne, English Church Clergyman, Gore
21	21 May 1891	Joseph Blight Emma Jane Moyses	Joseph Blight Emma Jane Moyses 💍 1891/1055	Bachelor Spinster	Clergyman	32 27	Gore Gore	3 days 3 days	Wesleyan Church at Gore	91/1863		21 May 1891	Rev. B. F. Bothwell, Wesleyan Clergyman, Gore
22	22 April 1891	Thomas Henry Brewer Matilda Wood	Thomas Henry Brewer Matilda Wood 💍 1891/1051	Bachelor Spinster	Stable Keeper	34 19	Gore Gore	8 years 2 years	Wesleyan Church at Gore	91/1862	William Henry Wood, father of Matilda Wood	22 April 1891	Rev. Christopher Abernethy, Wesleyan Clergyman, Gore
22	22 June 1891	William Muddeford Willis Mary McAlister Cook	William Meddeford Willis Mary McAlister Cook 💍 1891/1056	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	32 23	Gore Gore	7 years 14 years	Residence of Mr James Cook at Gore	91/1864		22 June 1891	Rev. Christopher Abernethy, Wesleyan Clergyman, Gore
25	25 April 1891	George Dickson Margaret Stephen McKenzie	Gorge Dickson Margaret Steven McKenzie 💍 1891/1076	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 18	Gore Gore	12 years 10 years	Residence of Mr Peter Ramsay at Chatton	91/1858	Christina Fisher, mother of Margaret Stephen McKenzie	25 April 1891	Rev. Peter Ramsay, Presbyterian Clergyman, Chatton, Gore
28	28 May 1891	William Warburton Parsons Hall Emily Mary Revell	William Warburton Parsons Hall Emily Mary Revell 💍 1891/2966	Bachelor Spinster	Banker	29 21	Gore Lawrence	3 months 6 years	English Church, Lawrence	91/1835		28 May 1891	Rev. Geo. Beaumont, English Church Clergyman, Lawrence
30	30 April 1891	Arthur Sydney Wallis Marion Grace McKenzie	Arthur Sidney Wallis Marion Grainger McKenzie 💍 1891/1075	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger	23 19	Gore Gore	13 years 14 years	Residence of Mr Peter Ramsay at Chatton	91/1857	Christina Fisher, mother of Marion Grace McKenzie	30 April 1891	Rev. Peter Ramsay, Presbyterian Clergyman, Chatton, Gore

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).