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 539

District of Ellesmere Quarter ending 30 September 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
15	18 July 1892	William George Doad Mary Elizabeth Quigley	William George Doak Mary Elizabeth Quigley 💍 1892/2490	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 29	Doyleston Doyleston	25 years 6 years	Wesleyan Church at Leeston	92/2601		18 July 1892	W. G. Parsonson
16	18 July 1892	Arthur Young Hellen Cunningham	Arthur Tong Helen Cunningham 💍 1892/2491	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 27	Southbridge Dunsandel	2 months 23 years	Residence of Andrew Darfield Dunsandel	92/2602		18 July 1892	W. G. Parsonson
17	23 August 1892	Frederick Ryan Ranger Harriet Eleanor Blackler	Frederick Byan Ranger Harriet Eleanor Blackler 💍 1892/2488	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	27 20	Sumner Leeston	2 months 8 years	English Church at Leeston	92/2599		23 August 1892	Staples Hamilton
18	24 August 1892	William McArthur Sarah Ann Dunn	William McArthur Sarah Ann Dunn 💍 1892/2494	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 19	Leeston Leeston	15 months 19 years	Town Hall Leeston	92/2605	James Dunn, father	24 August 1892	Frank Howard Veal
19	24 August 1892	Phillip George Marshall Emily Elizabeth Harrison	Philip George Marshall Emily Elizabeth Harrison 💍 1892/2487	Widower Spinster	Chaff Cutter	45 25	Southbridge Rangiora	39 years 9 years	Residence of Phillip Geo Marshall Southbridge	92/2598		24 August 1892	J. Whitehouse
20	7 September 1892	John Francis Donald Blanche Spring	John Frencis Donald Blanche Spring 💍 1892/2489	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	27 25	Doyleston Leeston	12 years 15 years	English Church at Leeston	92/2600		7 September 1892	Staples Hamilton
21	17 September 1892	Frederick William Hamson Ellen Henderson	Frederick William Hamson Ellen Henderson 💍 1892/2493	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 29	Lyttelton Doyleston	25 years 14 years	Residence of John Henderson Doyleston	92/2604		20 September 1892	William Grant
22	22 September 1892	John Sprott Halliday Annie Craig	John Sprot Halliday Annie Craig 💍 1892/2495	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 24	Lakeside Southbridge	22 years 34 years	Residence of John Craig Southbridge	92/2606		22 September 1892	William West
23	24 September 1892	William McLaughlin Agnes Sarah Houston	William McLaughlin Agnes Sarah Houston 💍 1892/2492	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	30 19	Irwell Hills Road	8 years 18 months	Residence of James Houston Hills Road	92/2603	James Houston, father	24 September 1892	William Grant
24	30 September 1892	Edward Washbourne Keziah Wacker	Edward Washbourne Keziah Walker 💍 1892/3491	Bachelor Spinster	Miller	24 25	Selwyn Brookside	27 years 25 years	Residence of William Wacker Brookside	92/3657		30 September 1892	William Grant

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).