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 1480

District of Hawera 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
93	14 January 1892	James Pierce Elizabeth Roberts	James Pierce Elizabeth Roberts 💍 1892/265	Bachelor Spinster	contractor	25 20	Normanby Normanby	10 days 14 days	Church of England Hawera	92/246	Fanny Meredith formerly Roberts mother	14 January 1892	W. H. Kay
94	23 January 1892	Walter Watson Duncan Lavinia Hansen		Bachelor Spinster	Horsetrainer Dressmaker	21 20	Hawera Hawera	8 months 4 years	at the residence of the Bride High Street Hawera	92/251	Jane Marie Dalzell formerly Hansen mother	23 January 1892	Robert McGregor
95	25 January 1892	Anton Harliwan Minnie Herd	Anton Hurliman Minnie Herd 💍 1892/293	Bachelor Spinster	sawmiller	32 21	Normanby Normanby	6 years 17 months	Registrars office Hawera	92/255		25 January 1892	J. F. Martin
96	3 February 1892	Thomas Francis Hall Margaret O'Sullivan	Thomas Francis Hall Margaret OSullivan 💍 1892/292	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	35 24	Hawera Hawera	4 1/2 years 2 years	Roman Catholic Chapel Hawera	92/254		3 February 1892	A. D. Mulvihill
97	10 February 1892	Thomas Lemmins Jane Turfrey	Thomas Timmins Jane Turfrey 💍 1892/294	Bachelor Spinster	Settler Housemaid	25 21	Hawera Hawera	4 days 10 days	Registrars office Hawera	92/256		10 February 1892	J. F. Martin
98	12 February 1892	William Henry Daysh Emily Maria Davies	William Henry Daysh Emily Maria Davies 💍 1892/295	Bachelor Spinster	farmer	22 21	Te Roti Te Roti	7 months 3 years	Registrars office Hawera	92/257		12 February 1892	J. F. Martin
99	15 February 1892	Charles Mitchell Eliza Mary Pitts Cooper	Charles Mitchell Thirza Mary Pitts Cooper 💍 1892/290	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Dressmaker	30 24	Hawera Hawera	4 years 8 years	at the residence of the Brides mother High Street Hawera	92/252		15 February 1892	Robert McGregor
100	24 February 1892	Thomas Hellier Ellen Gertrude Sampson	Thomas Hellier Ellen Gertrude Sampson 💍 1892/266	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 20	Hawera Hawera	5 days 3 weeks	Church of England Hawera	92/247	George Hellier Sampson father	24 February 1892	W. H. Kay
101	7 March 1892	John George Hudson Elizabeth Swadling	John George Hudson Elizabeth Swadling 💍 1892/291	Widower widow	Settler	54 59	Hawera Hawera	3 days 6 months	at the residence of John Finlay Wilson Street Hawera	92/253		7 March 1892	Robert McGregor
102	21 March 1892	Aaron Kirk Caroline Dow	Aaron Kirk Caroline Dow 💍 1892/296	Bachelor widow	Contractor	29 35	Te Roti Te Roti	6 months 9 months	Registrars office Hawera	92/258		21 March 1892	J. F. Martin

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).