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 1321

District of Dunstan 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	5 January 1892	George Blair Cartwright Sarah Ann Shepherd	George Blair Cartwright Sarah Ann Shepherd 💍 1892/590	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer Dressmaker	22 22	Pleasant Point Pleasant Point	18 years 8 years	Residence of Mr George Shepherd, Pleasant Point	92/665		5 January 1892	Revd John Callow, Wesleyan Minister
2	25 January 1892	Robert William Urquhart Isabella Gillies	Robert William Urquhart Isabella Gillies 💍 1892/589	Widower Spinster	Engineer	47 25	Dunedin Dunedin	13 years 14 years	Residence of Revd William Gillies, Dunedin	92/664		25 January 1892	Revd A. B. Todd, Presbyterian Minister
3	1 February 1892	George Gillbert Smith Mary Craig Brown	George Gilbert Smith Mary Craig Brown 💍 1892/3910	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 22	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 16 years	Registrar's office, Dunedin	92/673		1 February 1892	Dunstan & Stanley, Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
4	23 February 1892	Lionel Saunders Sarah Bennett	Lionel Saunders Sarah Bennett 💍 1892/3893	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 25	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 3 years	Primitive Methodist church, Dunedin	92/669		23 February 1892	Revd William J. Woodward, Primitive Methodist Minister
5	25 February 1892	Henry Edser Annie Payne	Henry Edser Annie Payne 💍 1892/591	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	29 25	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 1 month	Residence of Miss Louisa Payne, Sarah Street, Dunedin	92/666		25 February 1892	Revd William James Williams, Wesleyan Minister
6	4 March 1892	Benjamin Sarratt Jane Harrison	Benjamin Tarrant Jane Harrison 💍 1892/3908 John Garrett Mary Harrison 💍 1892/4065	Bachelor Spinster	Constable Milliner	24 21	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 21 years	Residence of Mr Joseph Harrison, Bank Street, Dunedin	92/671		4 March 1892	Revd William C. Woodward, Primitive Methodist Minister
7	5 March 1892	Thomas Phillips Clara Hubbard	Thomas Phillips Clara Hubbard 💍 1892/594	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	31 29	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 4 months	Residence of Mr W. W. Shilling, Sophia Street, Dunedin	92/670		5 March 1892	Revd William James Williams, Wesleyan Minister
8	8 March 1892	Albert Wyatt Mary Whiting	Albert Wyatt Mary Whiting 💍 1892/602	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 16	Dunedin Dunedin	4 years 12 years	St Andrew's	92/660	George Whiting, Guardian	8 March 1892	Revd Laurence Carsley Brady, Church of England Minister
9	11 March 1892	Kenneth Mackenzie Eva Allpress	Kenneth MacKenzie Eva Allpress 💍 1892/600	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 26	Geraldine Dunedin	24 years 11 years	Presbyterian Church, Dunedin	92/657		11 March 1892	Revd Alexander A. Todd, Presbyterian Minister
10	12 March 1892	George William Burmester Martha Nelson	George William Burmeister Martha Nelson 💍 1892/592	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Domestic Servant	25 24	Dunedin Dunedin	19 years 4 years	Residence of Mr Henry Bangflede, Wannaitaitai	92/667		12 March 1892	Revd William James Williams, Wesleyan 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).