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 1339

District of Wairau 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
1	6 January 1891	Thomas Lindsay Buick Mary Fitzgerald	Thomas Lindsay Buick Mary Fitzgerrald 💍 1891/1201	Bachelor Spinster	Member of the House of Representatives	24 years 22 years	Redwood Street, near Blenheim Redwood Street, near Blenheim	6 years 22 years	The House of W. T. L. Buick M.H.R. Redwood Street near Blenheim	91/1934		6 January 1891	Rev. W. J. Lewis
2	2 February 1891	William Newcombe Fairhall Fanny Mary Neame	William Newcombe Fairhall Fanny Mary Neame 💍 1891/1202	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 years 19 years	Woodbourne Wairau Renwicktown	23 years 19 years	The Roman Catholic Church, Blenheim	91/1935	John Edward Neame, Father	2 February 1891	Rev. W. J. Lewis
3	9 February 1891	Herbert Spence Jones Emily Maria Webley	Herbert Spence Jones Emily Maria Webley 💍 1891/3112	Bachelor Spinster	Enginedriver	26 years 26 years	Springlands Blenheim	about 6 years about 16 years	The Church of the Nativity, Blenheim	91/473		9 February 1891	Rev. J. S. Grace
4	14 February 1891	Joseph Henry Reid Joan Piper McIsaac	Joseph Henry Reid Joan Pipor McIsaac 💍 1891/3111	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 years 21 years	Starborough, Awatere Renwick Town	25 years 21 years	The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim	91/472		14 February 1891	The Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim
5	24 February 1891	William Henry Rogers Jane Hopgood	Henry William Rogers Jane Hopgood 💍 1891/3113	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	29 years 22 years	Renwick Town Renwick Old Road	12 years 22 years	The Church of England, Renwick Town	91/474		24 February 1891	Rev. J. S. Grace
6	4 March 1891	Edward Mead Sarah Flora Williams	Edward Mead Sarah Flora Williams 💍 1891/3114	Widower Spinster	Accountant	40 years 25 years	Blenheim Blenheim	about 4 years about 2 years	The Presbyterian Manse, Blenheim	91/475		4 March 1891	Rev. W. O. Robb
7	12 March 1891	George Newitt Bell Margaret Ann Timms	George Newth Bell Margaret Ann Timms 💍 1891/3109	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 years 20 years	Wairau Valley Wairau Valley	24 years 20 years	The office of the Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim	91/471	Richard Timms, Father	12 March 1891	The Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim
8	2 April 1891	Benjamin Oliver Hodgson Susannah Braufield	Benjamin Oliver Hodgson Susannah Bracefield 💍 1891/680	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist Dressmaker	24 years 26 years	Blenheim Blenheim	24 years 5 years	The house of Mr. Luston, South Street, Blenheim	91/1425		2 April 1891	Rev. Henry Bull

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).