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 1335

District of Ellesmere 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
1	21 January 1892	Frederick James Alley Clara Maria Buckingham	Frederick James Alley Clara Maria Buckingham 💍 1892/56	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster Governess	25 25	Irwell Gisborne	28 1/2 years Residence of 6 months A. Dreaton Irwell	Residence of A. Dreaton Irwell	92/647		23 January 1892	W. G. Parsonson
2	16 February 1892	John Bones Mary Bones	John Bones Mary Bones 💍 1892/2690	Widower Spinster	Farmer Servant	47 30	Southbridge Southbridge	10 years Residence of J Bones 3 years Southbridge road	Residence of J Bones	92/2923		16 February 1892	J. Whitehouse
3	5 March 1892	Richard Smyth Martha Quartermeine	Richard Smythe Martha Quartermain 💍 1892/55	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	30 27	Little Rakaia Little Rakaia	2 years English Church 2 years Southbridge	English Church	92/645		5 March 1892	E. Whitehouse
4	7 March 1892	Robert Davidson Petrie Catherine Greer	Robert Davidson Petrie Catherine Greer 💍 1892/3905	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	24 22	Christchurch Selwyn	3 years Residence of 22 years Jas Greer Selwyn	Residence of Jas Greer Selwyn	92/646		7 March 1892	William Grant
5	7 March 1892	Gustave Victor Berg Catherine Hatch	Gustave Victor Berg Catherine Hatch 💍 1892/47	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Domestic	36 17	Southbridge Southbridge	13 years Registrars office 17 years Leeston	Registrars office	92/648	Catherine Hatch Mother	8 March 1892	A. W. Arthur
6	11 March 1892	Henrich Wilhelm Walter Sarah Dabbin	Heinrich Wilhelm Walter Sarah Dobbin 💍 1892/48	Bachelor Spinster	Fisherman Servant	30 21	Irwell Southbridge	4 years Registrars office 21 years Leeston	Registrars office	92/649		11 March 1892	A. W. Arthur
7	30 March 1892	Richard Healy Elizabeth Craig	Richard Healy Elizabeth Craig 💍 1892/1513	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 22	Hunterville Southbridge	18 months residence of 22 years Jno Craig Southbridge	Residence of Jno Craig Southbridge	92/632		30 March 1892	William West

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).