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 243

District of Christchurch 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
15	10 January 1893	Richard Dundas Alice Augusta Jean Edward George	Richard Dundas Warren Alice Augusta Jean Edward 💍 1893/576	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	38 25	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 6 years	Registrars Office	93/604		10 January 1893	Registrar Marriages J. M. Ollivier
16	11 January 1893	Charles Horouce Russell Nellie Newcombe	Charles Horsnell Nellie Newcombe 💍 1893/1354	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 20	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 15 years	Bible Christian Church Addington	93/575	mother	11 January 1893	Rev. J. Archard Bible Christian
17	11 January 1893	James Thomas Dawson Rebecca Ann Hawker	James Thomas Lawson Ocean Annie Hawker 💍 1893/1106	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman Servant	23 19	Christchurch Christchurch	18 years 18 years	House of Rev. W. Birch Hanmore Road	93/543		11 January 1893	Rev. W. Birch Baptist
18	17 January 1893	William Dickie Eliza Smith	William Dickie Clara Eliza Smith 💍 1893/1367 William Morrish Elizabeth Smith 💍 1893/2964	Widower Spinster	Schoolmaster	34 30	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 5 years	Holy Trinity Church	93/587		17 January 1893	Rev. W. A. Pascoe Church of England
19	18 January 1893	Thomas Hobday Mary Groweley	Thomas Hobday Mary Graveley 💍 1893/577	Bachelor Widow	Clerk	35 42	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 7 years	Registrars Office	93/605		18 January 1893	Registrar Marriages J. M. Ollivier
20	18 January 1893	Charles Honey Close Emma Willis	Charles Henry Close Emma Miller 💍 1893/581	Bachelor Spinster	Tanner Tailoress	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	24 years 20 years	Roman Catholic Church	93/591		18 January 1893	Rev. W. Waruane Roman Catholic
21	23 January 1893	William Smith Potter Polly Louisa Rider	William Smith Potter Polly Louisa Rider 💍 1893/592	Widower Spinster	Methodist Minister	35 36	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 12 years	Methodist Chapel Cambridge Terrace	93/596		23 January 1893	Rev. W. Jones Methodist

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).