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 1347

District of [illegible] Quarter ending [illegible]

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
16	16 February 1891	Walter Philip Finch Emily Isabella Williams	Walter Philip Finch Emily Isabella Williams 💍 1891/3120	Bachelor Spinster	Architect	30 23	Napier Napier	8 years 23 years	Residence of the Brides mother Napier	91/457		16 February 1891	Rev D. McNicoll Wesleyan
17	16 February 1891	Alfred Gosser Rose Sanders	Alfred Coker Rose Sanders 💍 1891/3797	Widower Spinster	Salesman Housekeeper	33 22	Napier Napier	12 years 3 years	Residence of Alfred Gosser Barrack Hill Napier	91/955		16 February 1891	Rev J. G. Paterson Presbyterian
18	16 February 1891	James Mills Annie Jane Graham	James Mills Annie Jane Graham 💍 1891/3117	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	28 24	Napier Napier	15 years 17 years	House of the Brides Father Bower Napier	91/454		16 February 1891	Rev Chas Penney Free Methodist
19	24 February 1891	John Frederick Philip Langley Emily Hartley Kirkham	John Frederick Philip Langley Emily Hartley Kirkham 💍 1891/3119	Bachelor Spinster	Bookbinder Tailoress	26 24	Napier Napier	16 years 16 years	St. Augustine's Church Napier	91/456		24 February 1891	Rev J. Parkinson Church of England
20	26 February 1891	William George Maria Lecher	William George Maria Lecher 💍 1891/3017	Widower Spinster	Farmer Domestic	39 23	Waitangi Napier	6 months 8 months	Office of the Registrar Napier	91/463		26 February 1891	Sydney I. Lago Registrar
21	6 March 1891	William Henry Prince Frances Amelia Budd	William Henry Prince Frances Amelia Budd 💍 1891/3812	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinetmaker	32 19	Napier Napier	10 years 3 years	The Cathedral at Napier	91/944	William Budd father of Frances Amelia Budd	6 March 1891	Dean Hovell Church of England
22	10 March 1891	Edward John Pascoe Hannah Double	Edward John Pascoe Hannah Double 💍 1891/3811	Widower Spinster	Butcher Domestic	39 20	Napier Napier	20 years 6 years	The Cathedral at Napier	91/943		10 March 1891	Rev J. Parkinson Church of England
23	12 March 1891	George John Herritt Effie Hills	George John Merritt Effie Hicks 💍 1891/3813	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Housemaid	24 23	Clive Clive	20 years 12 years	Cathedral Napier	91/945		12 March 1891	Dean Hovell Church of England

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).