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 1471

District of Wanganui Quarter ending 31 March 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
10	08 March 1892	Thomas Harper Emma Ida Slignate Young	Thomas Harper Emma Ida Elizabeth Young 💍 1892/304	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 17	Wanganui Kanangaroa	5 days 10 yrs.	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	92/278	J. R. Young	08 March 1892	R. P. Wart, Deputy Registrar
11	08 March 1892	Albert Edward Whitehear Lilian Silby	Albert Edward Whitehead Lilian Silby 💍 1892/389	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	28 29	Wanganui Wanganui	4 days 1 yr.	In the residence of W. G. Bassett, St. John's Hill, Wanganui	92/332		08 March 1892	Charles Wallaston, Baptist
12	10 March 1892	William Spurway Mary Ann Goldring	William Spurway Mary Ann Goldring 💍 1892/285	Widower Widow	Farm Labourer	34 38	Wanganui Wanganui	4 wks. 4 yrs.	In the residence of Thomas Meech, Bell Street, Wanganui	92/268		10 March 1892	T. L. Tudor, Church of England
13	15 March 1892	Albert Kruman Eliza Jane Vuich	Albert Newman Eliza Jane Vincent 💍 1892/288	Bachelor Spinster	Bottler	29 23	Wanganui Wanganui	13 yrs. 23 yrs.	In the Wesleyan Church, Victoria Avenue, Wanganui	92/272		15 March 1892	H. R. Brooking, Wesleyan
14	18 March 1892	David Mason Jessie Mary Sheild	David Mason Jessie Mary Shield 💍 1892/303	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 26	Wanganui Wanganui	15 yrs. 3 mos.	In the Church of England, Putiki	92/277		18 March 1892	W. O. Williams, Church of England
15	18 March 1892	Carl William Ruebe Sarah Price	Carl William Ruebe Sarah Prier 💍 1892/282	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 28	Wanganui Wanganui	23 28	In the Church of England, Wanganui	92/265		18 March 1892	T. L. Tudor, Church of England
16	23 March 1892	Daniel Alabaster Jane Elizabeth Fish	Daniel Alabaster Jane Elizabeth Fish 💍 1892/305	Widower Widow	Gardener	51 40	Wanganui Wanganui	10 days 1 yr.	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	92/269		23 March 1892	S. W. Woon, Registrar
17	23 March 1892	William McKea Nellie Bennett	William McKee Nellie Bennett 💍 1892/287 William Nicol Clara Bennett 💍 1892/3711	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 24	Brunswick Brunswick	8 yrs. 15 yrs.	In the residence of Mr. A. Bennett, Brunswick	92/269		23 March 1892	James Tratwell, Presbyterian
18	28 March 1892	Joseph Patrick Keen Elizabeth Clark	Joseph Patrick Keen Elizabeth Clark 💍 1892/289	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	22 22	Wanganui Wanganui	6 yrs. 12 yrs.	In the Vestry of Trinity Wesleyan Church, Wanganui	92/273		28 March 1892	H. R. Brooking, Wesleyan
19	30 March 1892	Alexander Robert Eliza Jane Rowe	Alexander Robb Eliza Jane Rowe 💍 1892/3855	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 18	Wanganui Wanganui	2 yrs. 3 mos.	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	92/274	Mother having authority to give consent in case of minor	30 March 1892	G. W. Woon, Registrar

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).