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 161

District of Masterton 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
1	17 January 1893	William Henry Veile Madge Mouat		Bachelor Spinster	Journalist [illegible]	24 21	Masterton Masterton	1 Month 3 Months	House of Mr Veile, Watson Road Masterton	93/290		17 January 1893	Rev. John Duckes, Wesleyan Minister
2	25 January 1893	Sidney Robert Wood Sarah Elizabeth Clements	Sidney Herbert Wood Sarah Elizabeth Clements 💍 1893/891	Bachelor Widow	Draper	31 30	Masterton Masterton	5 Weeks 5 years	House of Mr Sidney Robert Wood, Masonic Street Masterton	93/283		25 January 1893	Rev. Robert Wood, Presbyterian Minister
3	30 January 1893	Charles Henry Payore May Grace Wrigley	Charles Henry Payne Mary Grace Wrigley 💍 1893/732	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	24 23	Masterton Masterton	3 Weeks 3 years	Wesleyan Church, Masterton	93/291		30 January 1893	Rev. John Duckes, Wesleyan Minister
4	1 February 1893	William Crombie Caroline Frances Marsh	William Crombie Caroline Frances Marsh 💍 1893/875	Bachelor Spinster	Postmaster	24 21	Masterton Masterton	1 Month 10 years	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Masterton	93/292		1 February 1893	John Bagge, Registrar
5	4 February 1893	William Henry Donovan Margaret Kelley	William Henry Donovan Margaret Kelly 💍 1893/3942	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner Housemaid	26 24	Apake Masterton	8 days 8 days	Apake, Masterton	93/289		4 February 1893	Rev. John McKenna, Roman Catholic Priest
6	3 February 1893	Thomas William Shaw Annie Mary Ann Warner	Thomas William Shaw Emma Maryann Warner 💍 1893/892	Bachelor Spinster	Houseman	36 31	Masterton Blairlogie Junction	1 Month 2 Months	House of Mr Lee, Blairlogie Junction	93/284		3 February 1893	Rev. Robert Wood, Presbyterian Minister
7	10 February 1893	John Findlay Agnes May Mayle	John Findlay Agnes Mary Playle 💍 1893/870	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 22	Masterton Masterton	6 Months 11 Months	Presbyterian Church, Masterton	93/285		10 February 1893	Rev. Robert Wood, Presbyterian Minister
8	15 February 1893	John William Neal Margaret Winterside	John William Neal Margaret Whiteside 💍 1893/871	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker	27 22	Masterton Masterton	2 years 6 days	House of Mr [illegible], Riversdale Masterton	93/286		15 February 1893	Rev. Robert Wood, Presbyterian Minister
9	28 February 1893	Henry Drake Polly Gee Tooth	Henry Drake Polly Gee Tooby 💍 1893/872	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 19	Masterton Masterton	3 days 19 years	Presbyterian Manse Masterton	93/287	father	28 February 1893	Rev. Robert Wood, Presbyterian Minister
10	3 March 1893	George Benton Catherine Brannigan	George Benton Catherine Brannigan 💍 1893/888	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	30 18	Masterton Masterton	3 days 3 days	Church of England Masterton	93/280	Patrick Brannigan, father	3 March 1893	Rev. W. E. Paige, Church of England Minister

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).