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 912

District of Ruiaiau Quarter ending 30 June 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
16	8 April 1892	William John Hughes Margaret Jane Irwin	William John Hughes Margaret Jane Irwin 💍 1892/1565	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	26 28	Ruiaiau Ruiaiau	17 years 28 years	Residence of Mr Robert Irwin, Ruiaiau	92/1682	8 April 1892	Rev. William James Williams, Wesleyan Minister
17	11 April 1892	William Thornton Leggett Emma Louisa Barton	William Thornton Leggott Emma Louisa Barton 💍 1892/1542	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 21	Ruiaiau Ruiaiau	21 years 11 years	Primitive Methodist Church, Ruiaiau	92/1676	11 April 1892	Rev. William C. Woodward, Primitive Methodist Minister
18	14 April 1892	William Henry Waterhouse Johannah Sullivan	William Henry Waterhouse Johannah Sullivan 💍 1892/1548	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 21	Ruiaiau Ruiaiau	22 years 5 months	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Ruiaiau	92/1690	14 April 1892	Thomas Hawley, Registrar of Marriages, Ruiaiau
19	19 April 1892	Alfred Edwards Saunders Ada Maria Gosling	Alfred Edwards Saunders Ada Maria Gosling 💍 1892/1559	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 32	Ruiaiau Ruiaiau	14 days 14 years	St. Mary's Episcopalian Church, Ruiaiau	92/1678	19 April 1892	Ven. Archdeacon Henry W. Harper, Church of England Minister
20	29 April 1892	James Askew Margaret Moffatt	James Askew Margaret Moffatt 💍 1892/1543	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 24	Ruiaiau Ruiaiau	3 days 6 months	Wesleyan Parsonage, Ruiaiau	92/1685	29 April 1892	Rev. William James Williams, Wesleyan Minister
21	2 May 1892	William Richard Evans Elizabeth Ferguson	William Richard Evans Elizabeth Ferguson 💍 1892/1560	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 26	Pareora Pareora	20 years 6 years	St. Mary's Episcopalian Church, Ruiaiau	92/1679	2 May 1892	Rev. Laurence Caroley Brady, Church of England Minister
22	18 May 1892	David Wilson Virtue Sarah Elizabeth Farrell	David Wilson Virtue Sarah Elizabeth Farrell 💍 1892/1546	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	31 22	Ruiaiau Ruiaiau	9 years 3 days	Roman Catholic Presbytery, Ruiaiau	92/1688	18 May 1892	Rev. James Foley, Roman Catholic Clergyman
23	20 May 1892	James Shepherd Betsy Rutherford Mitchell	James Shepherd Betsy Rutherford Mitchell 💍 1892/1553	Widower Spinster	Farmer	49 37	Sutherlands Sutherlands	10 years 2 months	Residence of Mr Lutosh, Waiete road, Ruiaiau	92/1677	20 May 1892	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
24	31 May 1892	Timothy Cronin Norah Loughnan	Timothy Cronin Nora Loughnan 💍 1892/1547	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 25	Ruiaiau Ruiaiau	6 months 2 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Ruiaiau	92/1689	31 May 1892	Rev. John Sullivan, Roman Catholic Clergyman
25	1 June 1892	William Connelly Lydia Augustus Morton	William Connelly Julia Augusta Morton 💍 1892/1562	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	23 21	Wainataitai Wainataitai	3 days 3 days	St. Mary's Episcopalian Church, Ruiaiau	92/1681	1 June 1892	Ven. Archdeacon Henry W. Harper, Church of England Minister

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).