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 1080

District of Auckland 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
2358	8 June 1891	John Edward Bacheler Sarah Whittingham	John Edward Owen Sarah Whittingham 💍 1891/152	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	29 20	Auckland Ponsonby	29 years 15 years	Registrar's Office	91/1099		8 June 1891	J. Owen Lord, Regr
2368	8 June 1891	Richard Billington Jane McLeary	Richard Billing Jane McAlary 💍 1891/1207	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	32 23	Wairoa North Auckland	1 year 3 years	Church of St. Patrick	91/1918		8 June 1891	Rev. J. Hackett, R. Catholic
2378	8 June 1891	Joseph Rogers Ellen Louisa Jenkinson	Joseph Rogers Ellen Louisa Jenkins 💍 1891/129	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	29 21	North Shore North Shore	4 years 4 years	Registrar's Office	91/1100		8 June 1891	J. Owen Lord, Regr
2389	9 June 1891	Michael Kavanagh Mary Kennedy	Michael Kavanagh Mary Kenealy 💍 1891/290	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel-keeper	37 25	Auckland Tauranga	17 years 2 years	Catholic Church, Tauranga	91/1127		9 June 1891	Rev. Mr. F. Filenan, R. Catholic
2399	9 June 1891	Cecil Ernest Bacheler Jane Abbott		Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	22 22	Parnell Onehunga	22 years 6 years	St. Peter's Church, Onehunga	91/1018		9 June 1891	Rev. W. E. Mulgan, Ch. of England
2409	9 June 1891	Alfred Hyam Marion Marshall	Alfred Wynn Marian Marshall 💍 1891/130	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 24	Auckland Parnell	22 years 2 years	Registrar's Office	91/1101		9 June 1891	J. Owen Lord, Regr
2410	10 June 1891	David John Mortimore Isabella Mahony	David John Moir Isabella Mahoney 💍 1891/3260	Bachelor Spinster	Coach-Builder	27 23	Brighton Parnell	1 year 23 years	St. Luke's Church	91/1022		10 June 1891	Rev. S. B. Maclean, Presbyterian
2420	10 June 1891	James Torrance Minnie Sylvia Raymond	James Porteous Minnie Sylvia Waymouth 💍 1891/286	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	23 19	Surrey Hills Auckland	6 months 19 years	Dwelling of John Raymond, Epsom	91/1035	John Raymond, father	10 June 1891	Rev. F. Guy, Methodist

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).