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 1453

District of Tauranga Quarter ending 31 March 1891 Registrar J. H. Freeman

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

220

10 January 1891

Alfred Edward Barker
Ellen Reeve

Alfred Edward Davoren
Ellen Reeve
💍 1891/3436

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith

21 years
20 years

Tauranga
Tauranga

21 years
20 years

Residence of Mr. D. Easton, Tauranga

91/193

S. Reeve, Father

10 January 1891

Rev. A. C. Laney

No	220
Date of Notice	10 January 1891
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Edward Barker	Ellen Reeve
BDM Match (88%)	Alfred Edward Davoren	Ellen Reeve
	💍 1891/3436
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	21 years	20 years
Dwelling Place	Tauranga	Tauranga
Length of Residence	21 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. D. Easton, Tauranga
Folio	91/193
Consent	S. Reeve, Father
Date of Certificate	10 January 1891
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. C. Laney

221

3 February 1891

James Baker jun.
Mary Ellen Wrigley

James Baber Junr
Mary Ellen Wrigley
💍 1891/3417

Bachelor
Spinster

Surveyor

35 years
25 years

Tauranga
Tauranga

13 years
15 years

Trinity Church, Tauranga

91/190

3 February 1891

Rev. Charles Jordan

No	221
Date of Notice	3 February 1891
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Baker jun.	Mary Ellen Wrigley
BDM Match (91%)	James Baber Junr	Mary Ellen Wrigley
	💍 1891/3417
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Surveyor
Age	35 years	25 years
Dwelling Place	Tauranga	Tauranga
Length of Residence	13 years	15 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Church, Tauranga
Folio	91/190
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1891
Officiating Minister	Rev. Charles Jordan

222

14 February 1891

William Hall Smith
Mary Jane Woodhams

William Hall Smith
Mary Jane Woolliams
💍 1891/3437

William Smith
Mary Ann Adams
💍 1891/2274

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

26 years
19 years

Tauranga
Tauranga

5 years
3 years

Residence of Mr. Woodhams, Tauranga

91/194

W. E. Woodhams, Father

14 February 1891

Rev. A. C. Laney

No	222
Date of Notice	14 February 1891
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Hall Smith	Mary Jane Woodhams
BDM Match (92%)	William Hall Smith	Mary Jane Woolliams
	💍 1891/3437
BDM Match (67%)	William Smith	Mary Ann Adams
	💍 1891/2274
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	26 years	19 years
Dwelling Place	Tauranga	Tauranga
Length of Residence	5 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Mr. Woodhams, Tauranga
Folio	91/194
Consent	W. E. Woodhams, Father
Date of Certificate	14 February 1891
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. C. Laney

223

20 March 1891

Peter John the fa Munro
Ida Matilda Rhoda

Peter John Hugh Munro
Ida Matilda Rhodes
💍 1891/3428

Bachelor
Spinster

Stockbroker

27 years
23 years

Tauranga
Tauranga

23 years
12 years

Trinity Church, Tauranga

91/191

20 March 1891

Rev. Charles Jordan

No	223
Date of Notice	20 March 1891
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter John the fa Munro	Ida Matilda Rhoda
BDM Match (81%)	Peter John Hugh Munro	Ida Matilda Rhodes
	💍 1891/3428
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stockbroker
Age	27 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Tauranga	Tauranga
Length of Residence	23 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Church, Tauranga
Folio	91/191
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 March 1891
Officiating Minister	Rev. Charles Jordan

224

26 March 1891

Charles Archibald Brown
Annie Horne

Charles Archibald Brown
Annie Horne
💍 1891/3435

Bachelor
Spinster

Commercial Traveller

32 years
23 years

Auckland
Tauranga

9 years
7 years

Trinity Church, Tauranga

91/192

26 March 1891

Rev. Charles Jordan

No	224
Date of Notice	26 March 1891
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Archibald Brown	Annie Horne
	💍 1891/3435
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Commercial Traveller
Age	32 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Tauranga
Length of Residence	9 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Church, Tauranga
Folio	91/192
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 March 1891
Officiating Minister	Rev. Charles Jordan

225

31 March 1891

Herbert Newnham Manuel
Evelyn Sarah Helena Shaw

Herbert Benbow Mansel
Evelyn Sarah Helena Shaw
💍 1891/311

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

24 years
17 years

Tauranga
Tauranga

7 years
2 years

Trinity Church, Tauranga

91/124

31 March 1891

Rev. Charles Jordan

No	225
Date of Notice	31 March 1891
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Newnham Manuel	Evelyn Sarah Helena Shaw
BDM Match (86%)	Herbert Benbow Mansel	Evelyn Sarah Helena Shaw
	💍 1891/311
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	24 years	17 years
Dwelling Place	Tauranga	Tauranga
Length of Residence	7 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Church, Tauranga
Folio	91/124
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 March 1891
Officiating Minister	Rev. Charles Jordan

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 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).