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 1394

District of Buller 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
575	7 January 1892	James Rathbon Mary Vicars	James Rathbon Mary Vicars 💍 1892/512	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Dressmaker	25 20	Denniston Westport	2 years 5 years	United Methodist Church	92/518	Richard Vicars, Father	7 January 1892	James Wrigley
576	15 January 1892	George William Jones Florence Dowling	George William Jones Florence Dowling 💍 1892/2351	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	28 22	Westport Westport	19 years 2 years	St Johns Church	92/2949		15 January 1892	James E. Bullen
577	16 January 1892	Ernest Malachi Pain Ada Ellen Franklin	Luis Malachi Pain Ada Ellen Franklin 💍 1892/511	Bachelor Spinster	Coal Miner	24 22	Westport Westport	23 years 3 years	Roman Catholic Church	92/516		16 January 1892	Thomas Walsh
578	21 January 1892	Charles James Siggins Minnie Marshall	Charles James Liggins Minnie Morshead 💍 1892/3795	Widower Spinster	Shipping Manager	34 24	Denniston Blenheim	5 months 2 years	Wesleyan Church	92/1496		21 January 1892	James Wrigley
579	4 February 1892	William Head Mary White	William Nedd Mary White 💍 1892/513	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Dressmaker	23 24	Westport Westport	3 months 3 years	Grey Show Grounds Westport	92/519		4 February 1892	James E. Bullen
580	4 February 1892	Joseph Frederick Hardy Sarah Jane Craig	Joseph Fredrick Hardy Sarah Jane Craig 💍 1892/2352	Bachelor Spinster	Stockkeeper	27 19	Denniston Westport	3 years 16 years	Church of England	92/2950	John Craig, Father	4 February 1892	James E. Bullen
581	22 February 1892	Patrick O'Connell Ellen McCarthy	Patrick OConnell Ellen McCarthy 💍 1892/3797	Bachelor Spinster	Horse Driver Housemaid	31 21	Westport Westport	9 years 3 years	Roman Catholic Church Westport	92/517		22 February 1892	John Morrissey
582	11 March 1892	Richard Edmund Hay Adeline Barnes	Richard Edward Hay Adeline Barnes 💍 1892/514	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	33 25	Westport Westport	3 days 3 days	Registrars Office	92/520		11 March 1892	The Registrar
583	12 March 1892	Henry Quills Annie Knight	Henry Betts Annie Knight 💍 1892/515	Bachelor Widow	Miner	24 24	Denniston Westport	8 days 8 days	Registrars Office	92/521		12 March 1892	The Registrar
584	21 March 1892	David Johnson Maria Hazeldine	David Johnston Maria Hazeldine 💍 1892/1312	Bachelor Widow	Brazier	33 34	Denniston Westport	10 years 5 years	Registrars Office	92/1446		21 March 1892	The Registrar
585	30 March 1892	Edward Fagan Mary Ruffle	Edward Henn Mary Mills 💍 1892/2971	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer General Servant	25 24	Westport Westport	5 years 1 month	Church of England	92/515		30 March 1892	James E. Bullen

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).