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 1479

District of [illegible] 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
31	21 January 1891	George Parnell Buchanan Clara Alice Thorneroft Frost	George Pannell Clara Alice Thorncroft Frost 💍 1891/3012	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 21	Lucas Creek Ararimu North	22 yrs 2 yrs	Groom's Dwelling & Ernest Arthur Frost	91/32		21 January 1891	Revd. J. Buchanan Wesleyan
32	21 January 1891	William Henry Rogers Gold Ramsay Margaret Dick		Bachelor Spinster	Painter	23 24	Newton Newton	2 yrs 18 mos	Groom's Dwelling & William Dick	91/65		21 January 1891	Revd. F. J. Greenwood Ch of Christ
33	23 January 1891	William James Laidlaw Mary Lloyd Martha Burns	William James Lloydd Martha Burns 💍 1891/3399	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	30 18	Ponsonby Auckland	2 mos 8 yrs	Registrar's Office	91/134	Mary Lloyd, mother	23 January 1891	J. Owen Lord, Regr
34	24 January 1891	Arthur Sale Clarke Mary Grace Hyde-Browne	Arthur Gale Clarke Mary Grace Wylde-Brown 💍 1891/3388	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	26 20	Auckland Park Avenue	16 yrs 20 yrs	Church of St Sepulchre	91/98	Col. Hyde-Browne, father	24 January 1891	Revd. J. B. Dudley Ch of England
35	24 January 1891	Lawrence Frost Selina Morgan Frances Mulgan	Lawrence Frost Selina Morgen Frances Mulgan 💍 1891/29	Bachelor Spinster	Marine Engineer	29 22	Mt Roskill Onehunga	10 yrs 10 yrs	Church of St Peter	91/63	Revd. T. E. Mulgan, father	24 January 1891	Revd. T. E. Mulgan Ch of England
36	24 January 1891	Edward Duraghty Selina Tattersall Mary Jane Kerr		Bachelor Spinster	Flower & Seed Keeper	30 26	Aratapu Dargaville	8 mos 26 yrs	Roman Catholic Church	91/72		24 January 1891	Revd. J. McDonald R Catholic
37	26 January 1891	William Hector Selina Dallas Margaret Alice Nelson		Bachelor Spinster	Postmaster	31 20	Auckland Auckland	11 yrs 7 yrs	St Patrick's Cathedral	91/49	James Dallas, father; Daniel Nelson, father	26 January 1891	Revd. J. Hackett R Catholic
38	26 January 1891	Charles Paull Matthews Louisa Jane Shephard	Charles Basil Matthews Louisa Jane Harpley 💍 1891/3400	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 30	Alexandra Remuera	8 yrs 8 yrs	Registrar's Office	91/135		26 January 1891	J. Owen Lord, Regr

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).