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 1139

District of Tauranga Quarter ending 30 June 1892 Registrar John Thomson

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

237

5 April 1892

Francis Loch Anderson
Ethel Mansel

Francis Losh Anderson
Ethel Maurel
💍 1892/963

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Nil

30 years
23 years

Katikati
Tauranga

3 years
5 years

Trinity Church, Tauranga

92/1083

5 April 1892

Rev. C. Jordan, Church of England Minister, Tauranga

No	237
Date of Notice	5 April 1892
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Loch Anderson	Ethel Mansel
BDM Match (89%)	Francis Losh Anderson	Ethel Maurel
	💍 1892/963
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Nil
Age	30 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Katikati	Tauranga
Length of Residence	3 years	5 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Church, Tauranga
Folio	92/1083
Consent
Date of Certificate	5 April 1892
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. Jordan, Church of England Minister, Tauranga

238

14 April 1892

Alfred John Durham
Annie Reay

Alfred John Durham
Annie Reay
💍 1892/989

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer
Nil

26 years
18 years

Maketu
Maketu

2 years
10 years

Registrar of Marriages Office, Tauranga

92/1087

Johanna Jephkaviti, mother of minor

14 April 1892

John Thomson, Registrar of Marriages, Tauranga

No	238
Date of Notice	14 April 1892
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred John Durham	Annie Reay
	💍 1892/989
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer	Nil
Age	26 years	18 years
Dwelling Place	Maketu	Maketu
Length of Residence	2 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Registrar of Marriages Office, Tauranga
Folio	92/1087
Consent	Johanna Jephkaviti, mother of minor
Date of Certificate	14 April 1892
Officiating Minister	John Thomson, Registrar of Marriages, Tauranga

239

23 May 1892

Samuel Spence
Maggie McDowell

Samuel Spence
Maggie McDowell
💍 1892/983

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Nil

35 years
24 years

Te Puke
Te Puke

10 years
10 years

Presbyterian Church, Tauranga

92/1086

23 May 1892

Rev. J. Scott, Presbyterian Minister, Tauranga

No	239
Date of Notice	23 May 1892
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Spence	Maggie McDowell
	💍 1892/983
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Nil
Age	35 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Te Puke	Te Puke
Length of Residence	10 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Presbyterian Church, Tauranga
Folio	92/1086
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 May 1892
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Scott, Presbyterian Minister, Tauranga

240

6 May 1892

Arundell Freke Scott
Lucy Ethel Maud Harris

Arundell Freke Scott
Lucy Ethel Maud Harris
💍 1892/964

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Nil

22 years
21 years

Te Puke
Te Puke

5 years
10 years

Trinity Church, Tauranga

92/1084

6 May 1892

Rev. C. Jordan, Church of England Minister, Tauranga

No	240
Date of Notice	6 May 1892
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arundell Freke Scott	Lucy Ethel Maud Harris
	💍 1892/964
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Nil
Age	22 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	Te Puke	Te Puke
Length of Residence	5 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Church, Tauranga
Folio	92/1084
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 May 1892
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. Jordan, Church of England Minister, Tauranga

241

8 June 1892

Edmund Soutar
Mary Duthill

Edmund Soutar
Mary Tuthill
💍 1892/972

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Nil

23 years
22 years

Greerton
Greerton

6 months
2 years

Trinity Church, Tauranga

92/1085

8 June 1892

Rev. C. Jordan, Church of England Minister, Tauranga

No	241
Date of Notice	8 June 1892
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edmund Soutar	Mary Duthill
BDM Match (96%)	Edmund Soutar	Mary Tuthill
	💍 1892/972
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Nil
Age	23 years	22 years
Dwelling Place	Greerton	Greerton
Length of Residence	6 months	2 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Church, Tauranga
Folio	92/1085
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 June 1892
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. Jordan, Church of England Minister, Tauranga

242

18 June 1892

Robert Arthur Dowell
Katherine Vereoes

Robert Arthur Dowell
Katherine Vercoe
💍 1892/2065

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Nil

26 years
25 years

Te Puke
Tauranga

8 years
23 years

Trinity Church, Tauranga

92/2151

18 June 1892

Rev. C. Jordan, Church of England Minister, Tauranga

No	242
Date of Notice	18 June 1892
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Arthur Dowell	Katherine Vereoes
BDM Match (94%)	Robert Arthur Dowell	Katherine Vercoe
	💍 1892/2065
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Nil
Age	26 years	25 years
Dwelling Place	Te Puke	Tauranga
Length of Residence	8 years	23 years
Marriage Place	Trinity Church, Tauranga
Folio	92/2151
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 June 1892
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. Jordan, Church of England Minister, Tauranga

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 1908. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).