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 1089

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
171	20 April 1891	Arthur Manley Becke Leile Charles Spiller		Bachelor Spinster	Civil Service	26 20	Parnell Parnell	10 years 4 years	Church of St Mary, Parnell	91/1061		5 May 1891	Rev. F. W. Isam, Church of England
172	21 April 1891	Archibald Thomson Mary Richards Spiller	Archibald Thomson Mary Richards 💍 1891/1205	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	26 21	Devonport Devonport	5 years 4 years	St Patrick's Cathedral	91/916		21 April 1891	Rev. J. Sheahan, R. Catholic
173	21 April 1891	James Mills Brown Sarah Davies Spiller		Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	27 24	Auckland Auckland	5 years 2 years	Auckland Dwelling	91/1064		21 April 1891	Rev. J. D. Gilmore, Baptist
174	21 April 1891	Seth Parsons Caroline Mary de Thier	Seth Parsons Caroline Mary De Thierry 💍 1891/1030	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 25	Otahuhu Otahuhu	4 years 2 years	Auckland Dwelling	91/1908		21 April 1891	Rev. T. C. Norward, Methodist
175	21 April 1891	Ernest George Sutton Louisa Daly	Ernest George Dutton Wright Louisa Daykin 💍 1891/3270	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Manager	22 19	Taupo Taupo	1 year 3 months	Church of All Saints	91/1009		5 May 1891	Rev. W. Culler, Ch. of England
176	22 April 1891	John Frost Mary Ann Heighway	John Frost Mary Ann Nairn 💍 1891/271	Bachelor Spinster	Bush Contractor	33 25	Wairoa North Parnell	25 years 25 years	Parnell Dwelling	91/1044	Robert Heighway, father of bride	22 April 1891	Rev. C. Carrick, Presbyterian
177	24 April 1891	James William Seddon Evangeline Mary Spiller	James William Holland Evangeline Mary Howie 💍 1891/125	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	20 19	Auckland Newton	23 years 17 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	91/1083	James Seddon, father	24 April 1891	J. Eman, Registrar
178	25 April 1891	Joseph Henry Bothamley Alice Cecilia Spiller	Joseph James Dobbs Alice Cecilia Spinks 💍 1891/1197	Bachelor Spinster	Mason	32 22	Ponsonby Ponsonby	2 years 2 years	St Benedict's Church	91/1913		25 April 1891	Rev. R. E. Goss, R. Catholic

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).