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 187

District of Wellington 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
61	28 February 1893	Edward Henry Complete Elizabeth Pope	Edward Henry Campbell Elizabeth Pope 💍 1893/1155	Bachelor Widow	Broker	33 38	Wellington Wellington	11 years 11 years	Registrars office Wellington	93/442		28 February 1893	W. T. Wray
62	28 February 1893	Spencer Jacob Sunday Elizabeth Templeton	Spencer Jacob Tucker Elizabeth Campbell McPhee 💍 1893/646	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	27 24	Wellington Wellington	1 year 1 year	Registrars office Wellington	93/441		1 March 1893	W. T. Wray
63	1 March 1893	Thomas Henry Nelson Louisa Townshend	Thomas Henry Newton Louisa Norsworthy 💍 1893/1154	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 23	Wellington Wellington	1 week 1 week	Registrars office Wellington	93/441		1 March 1893	W. T. Wray
64	1 March 1893	William Peter Nelson Eliza Johnson	William Peter Nelson Eliza Johnson 💍 1893/1156	Bachelor Widow	Shopkeeper	44 32	Wellington Wellington	14 days 14 days	Registrars office Wellington	93/443		1 March 1893	W. T. Wray
65	2 March 1893	Harry Stafford Mary Cavanagh	Henry Stafford Mary Cavanagh 💍 1893/1165	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	27 19	Ngahauranga Kaiwarra	2 years 2 years	Cathedral	93/390	Patrick Cavanagh, Father	2 March 1893	Rev. J. Patterson
66	2 March 1893	William Richard Symons Minnie Ethel Reill	William Richard Symons Minnie Ethel Reid 💍 1893/972	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	32 25	Wellington Wellington	6 years 6 years	St Johns Church	93/369		2 March 1893	Revd. N. R. Beck
67	2 March 1893	Walter Edward Chicken Emily Sarah Ann Suckling	Walter Edward Chisholm Emily Sarah Ann Tustin 💍 1893/968	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	30 22	Wellington Wellington	1 year 1 year	House of Mrs Suckling, Pirie Street	93/365		2 March 1893	Revd. Alfred Peters
68	2 March 1893	Philip Lucas Smith Catherine Louisa Bryan	Philip Lucas Firth Catherine Louisa Bryan 💍 1893/1015	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter	34 29	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	House of Mr Lawson, Lorne Street	93/405		2 March 1893	Revd. Alfred Peters
69	3 March 1893	John William Billingley Amy Laura Chitham	John William Billingham Amy Laura Chitham 💍 1893/1157	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 17	Wellington Wellington	4 days 4 days	Registrars office Wellington	93/444	William Chitham, Father	3 March 1893	W. T. Wray
70	3 March 1893	John McLean Jones Jane Becker	John McLean Jane Becker 💍 1893/1123	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	28 27	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	House of Mr McLean, Hanson Street	93/414		3 March 1893	Revd. J. K. Elliott
71	4 March 1893	James Weir Mary Cullen	James Weir Mary Cullen 💍 1893/1158	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	27 29	Wellington Wellington	4 days 4 days	Registrars office Wellington	93/445		4 March 1893	W. T. Wray
72	4 March 1893	George Alfred Sparkes Emily Proctor	George Alfred Sparks Emily Proctor 💍 1893/1139	Widower Spinster	Mariner	31 22	Wellington Lower Hutt	14 days 1 month	Registrars office Wellington	93/448		4 March 1893	W. T. Wray
73	4 March 1893	John Currie Jane Matilda Gordon	John Currie Jane Matilda Gardner 💍 1893/1184	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	25 21	Wellington Lower Hutt	2 years 3 weeks	Church	93/385		4 March 1893	Revd. R. Coffey
74	4 March 1893	Frank Hilliar Alice Mary McCardle	Frank Hilliar Alice Mary McCarthy 💍 1893/1159	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 24	Wellington Wellington	7 months 7 months	Registrars office Wellington	93/446		4 March 1893	W. T. Wray
75	4 March 1893	William Alfred Barnes Elizabeth Campbell	William Alfred Barrow Elizabeth Campbell 💍 1893/1138	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 19	Johnsonville Johnsonville	2 years 2 years	Registrars office Wellington	93/447	Charles Campbell, Father	4 March 1893	W. T. Wray

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).