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 1147

District of Riverton Quarter ending 31 March 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
306	22 January 1891	James Fraser Ellen Christina Cumming	James Fraser Ellen Christina Cumming 💍 1891/3765	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 24	Balford Gropers Bush	7 years 4 months	The house of Lunsken at Gropers Bush	91/919		22 January 1891	Rev. F. Neave (Presbyterian)
307	26 January 1891	William Smith Jessie Maud Winton	William Smith Pattison Jessie Annie Winton 💍 1891/3764	Bachelor Spinster	Catechist	30 30	Riverton Riverton	30 years 30 years	The House of Mr Jessie Winton	91/918		26 January 1891	Rev. S. B. Fellows (Wesleyan)
308	20 February 1891	Joseph Coughlan Annie Rogists	Joseph Coughlan Annie Rogers 💍 1891/3762	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	23 19	Otautau Otautau	4 years 16 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Riverton	91/916	Richd Rogists, father of Annie Rogists	20 February 1891	Alex Eyres, Registrar, Riverton
309	21 February 1891	William Croft Sarah Ann Lammon	William Croft Sarah Ann Lennan 💍 1891/3768	Bachelor Spinster	Station Master	27 19	Orepuki Orepuki	4 years 16 years	House of Thos Lammon at Orepuki	91/921	Thos Lammon, father of Sarah Ann Lammon	21 February 1891	Rev. Thos Neave (Presbyterian)
310	9 March 1891	Alexander Hogg Olivia Isabella Bickley	Alexander Hogg Olivia Isabella Bickley 💍 1891/3770	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	42 28	Orki Plains Naimatuku	13 years 5 years	The house of Saml F. Bickley at Naimatuku	91/923		9 March 1891	Rev. Thos Neave (Presbyterian)
311	9 March 1891	William Honeur Sarah Ann Pont	William Moncur Sarah Ann Pont 💍 1891/3769	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 18	Colac Bay Colac Bay	6 months 16 years	The Presbyterian Manse, Riverton	91/922	Geo Pont, father of Sarah Ann Pont	9 March 1891	Rev. Thos Neave (Presbyterian)

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).