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 1435

District of 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
25	24 January 1891	William James Hutt Backden Mary Ann Brett Spencer	William James Hutt Mary Ann Brett 💍 1891/3319	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	34 22	Ngaruawahia Ngaruawahia	4 years 4 years	In the house of Mr. Filley	91/219	16 January 1891	Revd. John S. McKenny, Presbyterian
26	25 January 1891	George Bycroft Rose Ann Vant	George Bycroft Rose Annie Vaut 💍 1891/3317	Bachelor Spinster	Fitter	36 24	Imakau Ngaruawahia	About 4 years 15 years	About in the house of Mr. Vant	91/217	27 January 1891	Revd. Saml. Lawry, Wesleyan
27	26 January 1891	Bernard King Margaret J. Hartnady	Bernard King Margaret Hartneady 💍 1891/3297	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 21	Frankton Frankton	9 years 7 days	St. Mary's Chapel	91/213	31 January 1891	Revd. Augustine S. O'Scan, Roman Catholic
28	27 February 1891	Hugh Delany Sophia Hunter	Hugh Delany Sophia Hinton 💍 1891/3308	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 19	Kirikiriroa Kirikiriroa	10 years 19 years	In the house of Mr. Henry Hunter	91/214	2 February 1891	Revd. A. S. O'Scan, Roman Catholic
29	28 February 1891	Sample W. Hought Agnes Elizabeth Wilson	Lenpel McKnight Agnes Elizabeth Wilson 💍 1891/3321	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	37 27	Yukikar awea Hamilton	11 years 3 days	In the Presbyterian Church	91/220	13 February 1891	Revd. John Hendrie, Presbyterian
30	29 February 1891	Tom Albert Chappell Lucy Taylor	Tom Albert Chappell Lucy Taylor 💍 1891/3318	Bachelor Divorced	Carpenter	29 28	Hamilton Hamilton West	4 years 5 years	In the house of Mr. Andrew Johnston	91/218	14 February 1891	Revd. Saml. Lawry, Presbyterian

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).