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 1281

District of Christchurch 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
17	12 January 1891	George Samuel Ashworth Lizzie Gardiner	George Samuel Ashworth Lizzie Gardiner 💍 1891/3634	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 28	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 4 years	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church	91/613	12 January 1891	Rev. Father Marman Roman Catholic
18	13 January 1891	Charles Lambert Wedon Hamilton Hawson Constance Lily Fanant Horsey		Widower Spinster	Accountant	36 21	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 2 years	St. Michael's Church Ch.Ch.	91/606	13 January 1891	Rev. W. Harper Church of England
19	13 January 1891	Bernard Moreham Kate Shannon	Bernard Morahan Kate Shannon 💍 1891/3633	Widower Spinster	Labourer Cook	46 46	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 18 years	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church	91/612	13 January 1891	Rev. Father Marman Roman Catholic
20	17 January 1891	Thomas Alfred Treadwell Henrietta Charlotte Saunders	Thomas Alfred Treadwell Henrietta Charlotte Saunders 💍 1891/3613	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Shop Assistant	21 25	Christchurch Christchurch	14 years 25 years	House of Mr. H.S. Saunders, 7 Worcester Street	91/587	17 January 1891	Rev. C. Dallaston Baptist
21	19 January 1891	Samuel Hackett Margaret Gordon	Samuel Meckan Margaret Larkin 💍 1891/2013 Samuel Hunter Margaret Reid 💍 1891/2968	Widower Widow	Farmer	66 46	Christchurch Christchurch	32 years 20 years	Registrar's Office (See No. 32)		19 January 1891	Henry Adams, J.P., Registrar of Marriages
22	19 January 1891	Austin Arthur Read Alice Drayton	Austin Arthur Read Alice Hayton 💍 1891/3616	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	21 23	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 15 years	House of Mr. Thomas Drayton, Harewood Road	91/591	19 January 1891	Rev. C.H. Standage Wesleyan
23	20 January 1891	John Gillies What Ellis Ada Lydia Orchard	John Gillies Whait Ellis Lydia Ada Orchard 💍 1891/3568	Bachelor Spinster	Bible Christian Minister	25 21	Christchurch Christchurch	14 days 4 years	Bible Christian Church, High Street	91/566	20 January 1891	Rev. J. Orchard Bible Christian
24	22 January 1891	Thomas Edward Brooks Alice Louisa Pease	Thomas Edward Brooks Alice Louisa Pease 💍 1891/3678	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	Registrar's Office	91/633	22 January 1891	Henry Adams, J.P., Registrar of Marriages

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).