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 1003

District of Buller Quarter ending 30 June 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
586	23 April 1892	James Walton Phillips Isabelle Beanie	James Walton Phillips Isabelle Beattie 💍 1892/1327	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	27 19	Denniston Denniston	6 years 9 years	Residence of William	92/1441	John Beanie father	23 April 1892	George Grindley
587	26 April 1892	Henry Charles Pick Clara Emma Gosnell	Henry Charles Peck Clara Emma Gosnell 💍 1892/1313	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	25 36	S.S. Grafton Westport	2 years 5 years	Registrars Office	92/1447		26 April 1892	The Registrar
588	26 April 1892	John Nixon Mary Bromley	John Nixon Mary Crowley 💍 1892/1326	Widower Spinster	Housemaid	50 27	Westport Westport	9 days 5 years	House of Rev. Thomas Walsh	92/1440		26 April 1892	Thomas Walsh
589	14 May 1892	Charles William Johnson Catherine Young Wardrop	Charles William Johnson Catherine Young Wardrope 💍 1892/1308	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	27 17	Denniston Denniston	3 years 5 years	Young Wardrop	92/1442	Wardrop father	20 May 1892	George Grindley
590	30 May 1892	Robert Bulman Minnie Campbell	Robert Bulman Minnie Campbell 💍 1892/1314	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic Servant	24 23	Denniston Westport	10 years Month	Registrars Office	92/1448		30 May 1892	The Registrar
591	31 May 1892	Joseph Charles Husband Emily Jane Quayle	Joseph Charles Husband Emily Jane Quayle 💍 1892/1309	Bachelor Spinster	Greengrocer	21 20		3 days 3 days	United Methodist Free Church Westport	92/1443	Philip Quayle father	31 May 1892	James Wrigley
592	4 June 1892	Joseph Royce Jessie Kimmins	Joseph Voyce Jessie Kininmonth 💍 1892/1310	Widower Widow	Miner	39 38	Denniston Denniston	5 years 3 1/2 years	Residence of Joseph Royce Denniston	92/1444		4 June 1892	I. Anson Caro
593	8 June 1892	Joseph Francis Osborne Janet Hendry	Joseph Francis Osborne Janet Hendry 💍 1892/1311	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	24 18	Westport	16 months 10 years	Residence of R. William Laycock Westport	92/1445	James Hendry father	8 June 1892	William Laycock
594	27 June 1892	Thomas James Higgins Margaret Cumming	Thomas James Higgins Margaret Cumming 💍 1892/2465	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	19 17	Denniston	2 years 10 years	Residence of William Cumming Denniston	92/2464	Priscilla Hall father, William Cumming father	27 June 1892	George Grindley
595	28 June 1892	Patrick Cavanagh Harriet McFarlane	Patrick Cavanagh Harriett McFarlane 💍 1892/1860	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Dressmaker	26 21	Westport Waimangarara	2 weeks 2 1/2 years	Church of England Westport	92/1980		28 June 1892	James E. Cullen

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).