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 015

District of [illegible] 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
90	24 February 1893	Alfred Ernest Harding Margaret Astley	Alfred Ernest Harding Margaret Astley 💍 1893/785	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 22	Mangawhata Avondale	12 years 6 months	Wesleyan Church, Mt. Albert	93/46	24 February 1893	Rev. G. Berry, Wesleyan
91	24 February 1893	Charles Alfred Wilson Clara Ann Barton	Charles Alfred Wilson Clara Ann Barton 💍 1893/784	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 23	Paparoa Auckland	3 years 9 months	Dwelling of Henry Barton, Union St.	93/45	24 February 1893	Rev. G. Berry, Wesleyan
92	24 February 1893	William Cowley Mary Jane Kennedy	William Cowley Mary Jane Kennedy 💍 1893/750 William Hodson Margaret Kennedy 💍 1893/659	Bachelor Spinster	Millhand	32 22	Otorohanga Otorohanga	10 months 2 years	Ch. of St. Thomas, Union St.	93/78	24 February 1893	Rev. W. On Rien, Ch. of Eng.
93	24 February 1893	John Morrison Elizabeth Jamieson	John Morrison Elizabeth Jane Scott 💍 1893/775	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	42 30	Waipara Shelly Beach	32 years 10 months	Dwelling of Elizabeth Scott, Shelly Beach	93/37	24 February 1893	Rev. F. Macnicoll, Presbyterian
94	27 February 1893	James Duff Ann Elizabeth Brogden	James Duff Ann Elizabeth Broyden 💍 1893/814	Bachelor Spinster	Driver	28 27	Eden Crescent Auckland	38 years 3 months	Registrars Office, Auckland	93/105	27 February 1893	J. Owen Lord, Reg.
95	28 February 1893	William Carter Margaret Boyd Thompson	William Carter Margaret Boyd Thompson 💍 1893/815	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 25	Ponsonby Newton	25 years 24 years	Registrars Office, Auckland	93/106	28 February 1893	J. Owen Lord, Reg.
96	28 February 1893	Thomas Instrip Ann Walker	Thomas Inskip Ann Walker 💍 1893/907	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	21 21	Avondale Arch Hill	9 years 3 years	Dwelling of Thos. Walker, Arch Hill	93/73	28 February 1893	Rev. W. S. Potter
97	28 February 1893	John Hoages Almavinder Mary Sores	John Hayes Almarinda Mary Sores 💍 1893/3947	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	22 23	Auckland Auckland	11 years 23 years	Church of St. Thomas, Union St.	93/77	1 March 1893	Rev. W. On Rien, Ch. of Engd.

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).