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 453

District of Gore 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
1	22 September 1892	William Harvey Alice Esther Bass	William Harvey Alice Esther Bass 💍 1892/2964	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	36 21	Gore Gore	13 years 14 months	Presbyterian Manse at Knapdale	92/2787		1 September 1892	Rev. Peter Ramsay, Presbyterian Clergyman, Gore
16	20 August 1892	Patrick Bellew Elizabeth Annie Maslin	Patrick Bellew Elizabeth Annie Maslin 💍 1892/2965	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 22	Gore Gore	8 years 8 years	English Church	92/2788		16 August 1892	Rev. I. L. Stanley, August English Church Clergyman, Gore
17	23 September 1892	James Barlow Anastasia Hugher	James Barlow Anastasia Hughes 💍 1892/2966	Bachelor Spinster	Rabbiter	35 42	Gore Gore	5 weeks 3 days	Church of England	92/2789		17 September 1892	Rev. I. L. Stanley, English Church Minister, Gore
18	21 August 1892	Thomas Stevenson Jessie Sutherland Banks	Thomas Stevenson Jessie Sutherland Banks 💍 1892/2963	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 22	Gore Gore	7 years 3 years	Presbyterian Manse at Gore	92/2786		18 August 1892	Rev. J. A. Asher, Presbyterian Clergyman, Gore
25	17 July 1892	John Livesey Harwood Mary Canning	John Livesey Harwood Mary Canning 💍 1892/2967	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	25 28	Gore Gore	5 days 12 years	Residence of Mr. F. S. Canning	92/2790		25 July 1892	Rev. Chris. Abernethy, Wesleyan Clergyman, Gore
26	18 July 1892	James Graham Marion Tillotson Anderson	James Graham Maria Tillotsa Anderson 💍 1892/2962	Bachelor Spinster	Grain merchant	28 23	Gore Gore East	4 years 3 years	Residence of Mr. W. B. Anderson	92/2785		26 July 1892	Rev. J. A. Asher, Presbyterian Clergyman, Gore
29	19 July 1892	William Ballintine Catherine Hay Campbell	William Ballintine Catherine Hay Campbell 💍 1892/2961 William Simpson Catherine Campbell 💍 1892/1564	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 20	Gore Gore	7 years 3 years	Residence of Mr. Peter Campbell	92/2784	Peter Campbell, Father	29 July 1892	Rev. H. J. Lewis, Congregational Minister, Gore

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).