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 471

District of Tokomairiro 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
672	1 July 1892	John Somerville Isabella Eliza Grey	John Somerville Isabella Eliza Grey 💍 1892/4077	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 21	Milburn Milburn	16 years Life	In the residence of Mrs Isabella Grey	92/2765		1 July 1892	Rev Geo Hall
673	19 July 1892	Albert Oliver Smith Elizabeth Emma Jones	Albert Oliver Smith Elizabeth Emma Jones 💍 1892/4055	Bachelor Spinster	Photographer	21 29	Milton Milton	4 days Life	In the residence of Peter Jones Milton	92/2767		19 July 1892	Rev B. J. Rothwell
674	10 August 1892	James Sinclair Annie Annis	James Sinclair Annie Annis 💍 1892/4059	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 19	Waihola Waihola	Life 17 years	In the Registrars office Milton	92/2771	Father	10 August 1892	Frank R. Leedale Registrar
675	11 August 1892	John Duncan Elizabeth McMurtrie	John Duncan Elizabeth McMurtrie 💍 1892/4056	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	24 25	Tokomairiro Tokomairiro	3 days Life	In the residence of Thomas Mc Murtrie Milton	92/2768		11 August 1892	Rev J. W. Allan
676	16 August 1892	George Moore Annabella Campbell	George Moore Annabella Campbell 💍 1892/4060	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	36 27	Tokomairiro Tokomairiro	3 days Life	In the residence of Donald Campbell Senr Clarendon Tokomairiro	92/2772		16 August 1892	Rev James Kirkland
677	23 August 1892	John Cunningham Julia Agnes Lilburne	John Cunningham Julia Agnes Lilburne 💍 1892/4063	Bachelor Spinster	Platelayer	19 20	Milton Milton	18 months Life	In the residence of Mrs Johanna Lilburne Milton	92/2775	Hugh Cunningham father	23 August 1892	Rev S. W. Currie
678	2 September 1892	Edward Hollick Sarah Elizabeth Gregory	Edward Hollick Sarah Elizabeth Gregory 💍 1892/4057	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	23 21	Milton Milton	Life 20 years	In the residence of James Gregory Waihola	92/2769		2 September 1892	Rev W. O. Hampton

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).