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 1219

District of Dunedin 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
43	20 February 1891	David Lealder Mary Jane Brownlee	David Calder Mary Jan Brownlee 💍 1891/3176	Widower Spinster	Stonemason	49 years 30 years	Leaversham Leaversham	30 years 4 years	In the house of Revd Dr Stuart	91/788		20 February 1891	Revd Dr Stuart Presbyterian Minister
44	20 February 1891	John Rymill Kemp Jane Stabb	John Reynill Kemp Jane Stabb 💍 1891/3683	Bachelor Widow	Storekeeper	59 years 39 years	Dunedin Dunedin	12 days 5 years	In the house of Thomas Burton Alva Street	91/737		20 February 1891	Revd R. Waddell Presbyterian Minister
45	23 February 1891	Samuel Alexander Sadler Hannah Agnes Donovan	Samuel Alexander Sadler Hannah Agnes Donovan 💍 1891/3783	Bachelor Spinster	Electrician	37 years 48 years	Dunedin Dunedin	1 month 1 month	In St. Josephs Cathedral	91/964		23 February 1891	Revd P. Lynch Roman Catholic Priest
46	23 February 1891	Charles John Hall Elizabeth Essex	Charles John Hall Elizabeth Essex 💍 1891/3181	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist	23 years 19 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 10 years	In Knox Church	91/793	Henry Essex father of minor	23 February 1891	Revd Dr Stuart Presbyterian Minister
47	23 February 1891	Alfred Smith Catherine Turner	Alfred Smith Catherine Turner 💍 1891/3180	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	23 years 18 years	Dunedin Woodend	20 years 14 years	In the house of Mrs Catherine Turner	91/792	Catherine Turner mother of minor	23 February 1891	Revd Dr Stuart Presbyterian Minister
48	24 February 1891	James David Simpson Beatrice Elizabeth Benfell	James David Simpson Beatrice Elizabeth Benfell 💍 1891/97	Bachelor Spinster	Agent	41 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	11 years 2 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages	91/818		24 February 1891	W. J. Hall Registrar of Marriages
49	24 February 1891	Samuel James Johnston Catherine Mona Pledger	Samuel James Johnston Catherine Mona Pledger 💍 1891/3179	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	26 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	14 months 21 years	In Knox Church	91/791		24 February 1891	Revd Dr Stuart Presbyterian Minister

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).