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 042

District of Gore 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
24	11 October 1892	Daniel McGowan Rosina Shirley	Daniel McGowan Rosina Shirley 💍 1892/3747	Bachelor Spinster	Dairy Factory Manager	24 21	Gore Gore	4 days 4 days	R.C. Presbytery Gore East	92/3852	11 October 1892	Rev. W. J. Newport R.C. Clergyman Gore
25	27 October 1892	Joseph Pemberton Margaret Ethel Wishart	Joseph Pemburton Margaret Ethel Wishart 💍 1892/3730	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 26	Otama Otama	2 years 12years	Residence of Robert McAllum, Otama	92/3856	27 October 1892	Rev Peter Ramsay Presbyterian Clergyman Gore
26	3 November 1892	William Kirk Emma Wood	William Kirk Emma Wood 💍 1892/3728	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 22	Gore Gore	1 year 4 years	Residence of W. H. Wood at East Chatton	92/3854	3 November 1892	Rev Chris. Abernethy Wesleyan Clergyman Gore
27	8 November 1892	James Souter Margaret Jane Kelly	James Souter Margaret Jane Kelly 💍 1892/3745	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 27	Gore Gore	3 days 3 years	Residence of Abraham Richardson, Gore	92/3850	8 November 1892	Rev J. A. Asher Presbyterian Clergyman Gore
28	12 November 1892	James Clarke Jane Walker	James Clarke Jane Walker 💍 1892/3731	Bachelor Spinster	Clergyman	35 30	Gore Gore	1 week 3 days	Presbyterian manse at Chatton	92/3857	12 November 1892	Rev Peter Ramsay Presbyterian Clergyman Gore
29	14 November 1892	Charles Burrows Baird Mary Ellen Robins	Charles Burrows Baird Mary Robins 💍 1892/3727	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 21	Gore Gore	5 years 14 years	R.C. Church at Gordon	92/3853	14 November 1892	Rev W. J. Newport R.C. Clergyman Gore
30	23 November 1892	Alexander Dryden Mary Ann Friend	Alexander Dryden Mary Ann Friend 💍 1892/3746	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmiller	25 22	Gore Gore	4 years 4 days	Congregational Church at Gore	92/3851	23 November 1892	Rev H. J. Lewis Congregational Clergyman Gore
31	23 December 1892	George Tod Alice Willoy Blackley McCallum	George Tod Alice Wilcox Blackley McCallum 💍 1892/3636	Bachelor Spinster	Auctioneer	34 29	Gore Woodlands	3 years 3 years	Residence of Robert McCallum at Wood Stock, Woodlands	92/3899	23 November 1892	Rev Hugh Kelly Presbyterian Clergyman Invercargill

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).