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 960

District of Wellington 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
170	6 June 1891	William Francis James Alice Jane Hill	William Francis James Alice Jane Hill 💍 1891/406	Bachelor Spinster	Mechanical Engineer Engineer	23 23	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. G. Hill, Wallace Street	91/1245		6 June 1891	Rev. G. E. Ward
171	6 June 1891	Charles Bono Emma Marshale	Charles Bono Emma Marshall 💍 1891/426	Bachelor Widow	Settler	28 29	Wellington Wellington	10 months 10 months	St. Peters Church	91/288		6 June 1891	Rev. W. C. Waters
172	8 June 1891	Arthur Samuel Ballinger Fanny Smith	Arthur Samuel Ballinger Fanny Smith 💍 1891/452	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	29 24	Wellington Wainui	years years	House of Mr. G. Smith, Wainui	91/1240		8 June 1891	Rev. J. M. Davenport
173	10 June 1891	William Henry Ives Emma Elizabeth Watson	William Henry Eves Emma Elizabeth Wakeham 💍 1891/484 William Peters Emma Elizabeth Smith 💍 1892/3895	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	45 35	Wellington Wellington	3 days 1 week	Registrars Office, Wellington	91/324		10 June 1891	Mr. W. L. Wyatt
174	11 June 1891	James Richard Barry Elizabeth Jane Garrett	James Richard Barry Elizabeth Jane Garrett 💍 1891/461	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	24 22	Petone Wellington	years years	Registrars Office, Wellington	91/325		11 June 1891	Mr. W. L. Wyatt
175	11 June 1891	William Thomas Hollingsworth Priscilla Undrill	William Thomas Hollingsworth Priscilla Mudge 💍 1891/410	Widower Spinster	Insurance Agent	44 33	Wellington Wellington	years years	Household of Mr. W. Undrill, Majoribanks Street	91/1250		11 June 1891	Rev. J. Paterson
176	12 June 1891	Charles Raworth Robinson Flora Annie Richards	Charles Bosworth Robinson Flora Anne Richards 💍 1891/1931	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	33 27	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Marks Church	91/2757		12 June 1891	Rev. R. Coffey
177	13 June 1891	Joseph Charles Henderson Beatrice Annie Worger	Joseph Charles Henderson Beatrice Annie Worger 💍 1891/1930	Bachelor Spinster	Guard	24 24	Wellington Wellington	3 days 1 month	St. Marks Church	91/2756		13 June 1891	Rev. R. Coffey
178	15 June 1891	John Cotton Susan King	John Cotton Susan King 💍 1891/404	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor	23 22	Petone Petone	years years	Presbyterian Church, Petone	91/1243		15 June 1891	Rev. A. Thomson
179	15 June 1891	William Compston Ellen Naulon	William Tompsilt Ellen Hanlon 💍 1891/411 William Thompson Ellen Dawson 💍 1891/3438 William John Coughlan Ellen Lawton 💍 1892/775 John William Henderson Ellen Mason 💍 1891/555	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	41 24	Wellington Wellington	1 day 1 day	St. Pauls Cathedral	91/1266		15 June 1891	Very Rev. J. C. Namara
180	15 June 1891	Robert Noble Catherine Kate McCarthy		Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker	28 23	Wellington Wellington	2 months 3 [illegible]	Registrars Office, Wellington	91/1327		15 June 1891	Mr. W. L. Wyatt
181	16 June 1891	Charlie Kelly Lillian Selina Simmons	Charlie Kelly Deborah Lillian Simmonds 💍 1891/462	Bachelor Widow	Engineer	21 26	Wellington Wellington	3 weeks 4 days	Registrars Office, Wellington	91/1326		16 June 1891	Mr. W. L. Wyatt
182	16 June 1891	Robert Steel Walton Elizabeth Hegglund	Robert Nevel Dalton Elizabeth Hedgland 💍 1891/413	Bachelor Spinster	Boiler Maker	22 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Parker, Sussex Square	91/1276		16 June 1891	Rev. John F. Lewis
183	17 June 1891	Alfred How Phoebe Harris	Alfred Love Phoebe Harris 💍 1891/1378	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	21 18	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars Office, Wellington	91/1272	No relation in Colony, Father in England	1 July 1891	Mr. W. L. Wyatt
184	20 June 1891	Isaac Wiren Rebecca Henderson	Isaac Wiren Rebecca Mendelson McGire 💍 1891/414	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	29 20	Wellington Wellington	years years	Wesleyan Parsonage, Taranaki Street	91/1277	Father	20 June 1891	Rev. J. F. Lewis

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).