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 1091

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
155	10 April 1891	James Porter Elizabeth McKean	James Porter Bridget Mahon 💍 1891/850	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Spinster	31 22	East Tamaki East Tamaki	31 years 22 years	Dwelling of Jessie Porter	91/1060		10 April 1891	Revd. Frank Gould
156	10 April 1891	George Goldthorpe Brown Annie Walker	Guy Goldthorp Brown Alison Walker 💍 1891/842	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Spinster	32 28	Pukifuri Mangere	4 years 4 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	91/1075		10 April 1891	J. Owen Lord, Regr.
157	11 April 1891	Samuel Robert Milner Margaret Jane Dunne	Samuel Robert Fairweather Margaret Jane Dunn 💍 1891/1186	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Spinster	37 22	Surrey Hills Auckland	32 years 22 years	Church of St Benedict	91/1912		11 April 1891	Revd. C. Downey, R. Catholic
158	13 April 1891	Samuel Francis Pear Agnes Campbell Pear		Bachelor Spinster	Orchardist Spinster	21 21	River Head Waikomiti	30 years 21 years	Dwelling of Isabella Pear	91/1910		13 April 1891	Revd. C. Norrbays, Presbyterian
159	13 April 1891	James Henderson Milner Florence Edwards		Widower Widow	Farmer Widow	65 60	Avondale Auckland	8 months 10 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	91/1076		13 April 1891	J. Owen Lord, Regr.
160	13 April 1891	John William Robertson Margaret Maria Cooney	John William Robertson Margaret Maria Cooney 💍 1891/1204	Bachelor Spinster	Cook Spinster	25 23	Auckland Auckland	8 years 5 years	St Patrick's Cathedral	91/1915		13 April 1891	Revd. J. O'Shea, R. Catholic
161	13 April 1891	William Pemberton Ford Sarah Jane Ford	William Penberthy Ford Sarah Jane McGinley 💍 1891/114	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Spinster	34 32	Auckland Auckland	3 months 32 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	91/1077		13 April 1891	J. Owen Lord, Regr.
162	14 April 1891	Alexander Shepherd Elizabeth Crabb	Alexander Chaplin Elizabeth Crabb 💍 1891/120	Widower Spinster	Blacksmith Spinster	30 18	Newton North Shore	2 years 10 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	91/1078	Thomas Crabb, father of Elizabeth Crabb	14 April 1891	J. Owen Lord, Regr.

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).