Intentions to Marry, 1893

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840405, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole and Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, June 6 2025.

A few pages are missing due to focus issues.

Page 013

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 1893

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
75	13 February 1893	Wm. Lincoln Lee Rees Emmelina Blandford	William Lincoln Lee Rees Emmelena Claude Jervis 💍 1893/35	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	26 25	Gisborne Parnell	10 yrs 25 yrs	Church of St. Mark	93/20		13 February 1893	Rev. J. Richards, Ch. of Eng.
76	13 February 1893	Wm. Worthington Mary Vause	William Worthington Mary Vause 💍 1893/912	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	21 19	Mangaturoto Ponsonby	7 yrs 9 yrs	Dwelling of John Vause	93/55	John Vause, Father	13 February 1893	Rev. C. St. Laws, Wesleyan
77	13 February 1893	James Cunningham Mary O'Keefe	James Cunningham Mary O'Keefe 💍 1893/793	Bachelor Spinster	Labour	40 26	Kaikoura Russell Newton	3 yrs 6 yrs	Ch. of St. Benedict	93/31		13 February 1893	Rev. G. Downey, Roman Cath.
78	13 February 1893	Robert Allan Coutts Eliza Denbreek	Robert Allan Coutts Eliza Dembreek Laukham 💍 1893/28	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	45 29	Wairoa South Devonport	37 yrs 10 yrs	Dwelling of George Lankham	93/14		13 February 1893	Rev. J. Gibb, Presbyterian
79	14 February 1893	Jas. Matthew Sims Mary Emma Davidge	James Matthew Sims Mary Emma Davidge 💍 1893/40	Bachelor Spinster	Mill hand	25 22	Onehunga Onehunga	25 yrs 22 yrs	Dwelling of Benj. Davidge	93/25		14 February 1893	Rev. T. Ferguson, Presbyterian
80	15 February 1893	Albert Edw. Brown Eleanor Maria Borlase	Albert Edward Braund Eleanor Marion Boulter 💍 1893/911	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	24 21	Auckland Auckland	24 yrs 3 yrs	Dwelling of Henry Bartlett, Argyle St. Ponsonby	93/54		15 February 1893	Rev. C. St. Laws, Wesleyan
81	16 February 1893	Peter Bennie Miriam Hotchkin		Bachelor Spinster	Coal Merchant	30 21	Te Aroha Te Aroha	6 yrs 12 yrs	Dwelling of Wm. Alexr. Kelly	93/7		16 February 1893	Rev. G. O. Perry, United Methodist
82	16 February 1893	Edward Martin Copland Hannah Halford Hogan	Edward Martin Copland Hannah Halford Hogan 💍 1893/764	Bachelor Widow	Labour	41 45	Chelsea Auckland	3 yrs 20 yrs	Registrars Office, Auckland	93/101		16 February 1893	J. Owen Lord, Reg.

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).