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 244

District of Palmerston North Quarter ending 31 December 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
71	2 November 1892	Joseph Johnson Eliza Ann Bragg formerly Gallon	Joseph Johnson Eliza Ann Bragg 💍 1892/3160	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	47 years 35 years	Palmerston North Feilding	16 months 5 days	Anglican Church Feilding	92/3264		2 November 1892	Revd. A. Hermon Anglican Minister Feilding
72	4 November 1892	Frederick Theophilus Coley Martha Helen Young	Frederick Theophilus Coley Martha Helen Young 💍 1892/3172	Bachelor Spinster	Cab-driver	23 years 20 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	3 years 9 years	All Saints Church Palmerston North	92/3275	Ann Young mother	4 November 1892	Revd. H. B. Harvey Anglican Minister Palmerston North
73	5 November 1892	Thomas Hughes Amy Sophia Leaver	Thomas Hughes Amy Sophia Leaver 💍 1892/3105	Bachelor Spinster	Salvation Army Officer Salvation Army Officer	25 years 25 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	4 days 4 days	Salvation Army Barracks Palmerston North	92/3284		5 November 1892	Charles Robinson Salvation Army Officer
74	15 November 1892	William Williamson Grace Annie Wilmshurst	William Williamson Grace Annie Wilmshurst 💍 1892/3083	Bachelor Spinster	Barman	28 years 22 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	3 days 3 days	At the office of the Registrar Palmerston North	92/3286		15 November 1892	Robt. H. Keeling Registrar Palmerston North
75	22 November 1892	Frederick Spencer Wellsman Martha Jane Cole formerly Atkinson	Frederick Spencer Wellsman Martha Jane Cole 💍 1892/3084	Bachelor Divorcee	Groom	34 years 24 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	3 days 1 year	At the office of the Registrar Palmerston North	92/3287		22 November 1892	Robt. H. Keeling Registrar Palmerston North
76	29 November 1892	David Donald Rainforth Sarah Louise Rainforth	David Smillie Donald Sarah Louisa Rainsforth 💍 1892/3457	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 years 24 years	Palmerston North Enfield Oamaru N.Z.	1 year 24 years	Wesleyan Parsonage Oamaru	92/3718		29 November 1892	Revd. I. A. Luxford Wesleyan Minister Oamaru

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).