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 1257

District of Ashburton 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
672	3 January 1891	William Allan Sophia Garland Drury	William Allan Sophia Garland Shury 💍 1891/3801	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	26 years 23 years	Ashburton Ashburton	2 months 15 years	St. Stephen's Church, Ashburton	91/959		3 January 1891	Revd. E. A. Scott
673	2 February 1891	Charles John Bax Georgina Pearce	Charles John Bax Georgina Pearce 💍 1891/77	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	26 years 19 years	Ashburton Ashburton	2 years 10 years	Salvation Army Barracks at Ashburton	91/672	George Pearce, Father	2 February 1891	Revd. James Cocker
674	2 February 1891	James Powers Elizabeth Holland	James Sawers Elizabeth Holland 💍 1891/80	Bachelor Spinster	Dairy Factory Manager	36 years 25 years	Flemington Flemington	15 months 13 years	Presbyterian Church, Flemington	91/675		2 February 1891	Revd. A. Blake
675	25 February 1891	Charles Gale Ellen Husband	Charles Gale Ellen Husband 💍 1891/78	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	50 years 29 years	Mayfield Willowby	6 years 2 years	St. Andrew's Church, Tinwald	91/673		25 February 1891	Revd. R. F. Bartlett
676	3 March 1891	Thomas Henry Addis Martha Fleming	Thomas Henry Addis Martha Fleming 💍 1891/73	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	32 years 20 years	Flemington Ashburton	10 years 5 years	Presbyterian Church, Ashburton	91/669	William Fleming, Father	3 March 1891	Revd. A. M. Beattie
677	16 March 1891	Thomas Leonard Felton Kate Madaline Happin	Thomas Leonard Felton Kate Madaline Toppin 💍 1891/79	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	21 years 19 years	Ashburton Ashburton	16 years 16 years	Registrar's Office, Ashburton	91/674	Henry William Felton, Guardian	17 March 1891	J. Ward, Registrar
678	21 March 1891	Benjamin Carter Marion Klenk	Benjamin Carter Marion Klenk 💍 1891/75	Widower Widow	Labourer Nurse	44 years 43 years	Trevorston Willowby, Ashburton	16 years 3 years	Private Dwellinghouse of Revd. Joseph St. Gray at Willowby	91/671		24 March 1891	Revd. Joseph St. Gray
679	26 March 1891	Robert Rolston Florence Amy North	Robert Elston Florence Amy North 💍 1891/74	Widower Spinster	Advertising Agent Teacher	42 years 21 years	Ashburton Ashburton	16 years 3 months	Private Dwellinghouse of Robert Rolston at Ashburton	91/670		26 March 1891	Revd. A. M. Beattie

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).