Intentions to Marry, 1892

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840404, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 28 2025

Page 081

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1892

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
285	19 October 1892	Arsine Louis Trochon Eliza Bonner	Arsine Louis Trucham Eliza Bonner 💍 1892/3545	Bachelor Widow	Tram Conductor	50 years 45 years	Dunedin Dunedin	22 years 22 years	In the house of Henry Verchere, Great King Street	92/3776		19 October 1892	Revd Dr Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
286	20 October 1892	Edward Bills Louisa Godfrey	Edward Bills Louisa Godfrey 💍 1892/3547	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	25 years 20 years	Woodhaugh Woodhaugh	3 weeks 1 year	In Knox Church	92/3778	Emma George, mother of minor	20 October 1892	Revd Dr Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
287	20 October 1892	George Henry Wick Eliza Mary Deans	George Henry Wieck Eliza Mary Deans 💍 1892/3650	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	27 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	9 months 22 years	In the house of James Henry Wilkinson, Hanover Street	92/3754		20 October 1892	Revd W Ready, Bible Christian Minister
288	21 October 1892	George Edwin Hardwick Emma Beatrice Davies	George Edwin Hardwick Emma Beatrice Davies 💍 1892/3535	Bachelor Spinster	Tram Driver	27 years 22 years	Mornington Mornington	9 years 17 years	In St Mary's Church	92/3748		21 October 1892	Revd W. C. Cotes, Church of England Minister
289	22 October 1892	Marshall Millar Marianne Kirby	Marshall Millar Marianne Kirby 💍 1892/3534	Widower Spinster	Salesman	28 years 34 years	Dunedin Dunedin	28 years 3 days	In St Peters Church, Caversham	92/3747		22 October 1892	Revd B. M. King, Church of England Minister
290	24 October 1892	Patrick K Diamond Fanny Elizabeth Lyons	Patrick Diamond Fanny Elizabeth Lyons 💍 1892/3537	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	30 years 22 years	North East Valley Roslyn	2 years 12 years	In St Josephs Cathedral	92/3727		24 October 1892	Revd P Lynch, Roman Catholic Priest
291	25 October 1892	Hector Alexander Richardson Norah Keating	Hector Alexander Richardson Norah Keating 💍 1892/3573	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter	25 years 28 years	Dunedin Dunedin	19 months 9 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages	92/3805		25 October 1892	W. J. Hall, Registrar of Marriages

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).