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 936

District of Buller 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
539	6 April 1891	Martin Rogers Bridget Maloney	Martin Rogers Bridget Moloney 💍 1891/616	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	37 22	Westport Westport	4 days 20 years	Roman Catholic	91/1460		6 April 1891	Thomas Walshi
540	9 April 1891	Martin Lucas Crayer Sarah Ann Holmes	Martin Lucas Codyre Sarah Ann McInnes 💍 1891/620	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Dressmaker	24 27	Westport Westport	30 years 2 years	Registrars Office	91/1463		9 April 1891	The Registrar
541	29 April 1891	Timothy Kelly Johanna Collins	Timothy Kelly Johanna Collins 💍 1891/618	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Milliner	34 22	Westport Westport	3 years 12 years	Roman Catholic	91/1461		28 April 1891	Thomas Walshi
542	4 May 1891	Alexander Senior Margaret Ellen O'Brien	Alexander Senior Margaret Ellen O'Brien 💍 1891/621	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	24 24	Waimangaroa Westport	6 years 6 weeks	Registrars Office	91/1464		4 May 1891	The Registrar
543	14 May 1891	Maurice Griffin Mary O'Brien	Maurice Griffin Mary O'Brien 💍 1891/619	Bachelor Spinster	Quarryman	24 21	Westport Westport	30 years 18 months	Roman Catholic	91/1462		14 May 1891	Thomas Walshi
544	20 May 1891	Thomas Tillingham Bethia Scottie	Thomas Eltringham Bethia Scobie 💍 1891/709	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	21 16	Denniston Denniston	18 months 10 years	Residence of George Scottie	91/1480	George Scottie, Father	21 May 1891	John Ophel
545	5 June 1891	George Craig Comas Mary Morgan	George Craggs Lomas Mary Morgan 💍 1891/710	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Saleswoman	23 18	Denniston Denniston	3 years 4 years	Church Denniston	91/1481	Richard Morgan, Father	6 June 1891	John Ophel
546	9 June 1891	Fred Clifford Charlotte Walker	Fred Clifford Charlotte Watson 💍 1891/614	Widower Spinster	Hotelkeeper Housemaid	26 19	Westport Westport	5 years 7 years	Wakatu Westport	91/1458	Thomas Walker, Father	9 June 1891	James C. Cullen
547	11 June 1891	Alexander Still Mary Holmes	Alexander Hill Mary Holmes 💍 1891/711	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	34 18	Denniston Denniston	10 years 10 years	Holmes Denniston	91/1482	Hugh Holmes, Father	11 June 1891	John Ophel
548	18 June 1891	Lewis Smout Jessie Marshall	Lewis Sweet Jessie Marshall 💍 1891/622	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Housemaid	54 24	Hokitika Hokitika	23 years 3 months	Registrars Office	91/1465		18 June 1891	The Registrar
549	16 June 1891	Thomas Richard Timetney Anastasia Power	Thomas Richard Winsbury Philpotts Anastasia Power 💍 1891/615	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	28 24	Westport Westport	3 days 2 years	Church of England	91/1459		16 June 1891	James C. Cullen
550	29 June 1891	William Gould Bridget Cotting	William Gould Bridget Cooney 💍 1891/1446	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	33 24	Addisons Addisons	10 years 4 months	Roman Catholic	91/2390		29 June 1891	Thomas Walshi

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).