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 404

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 June 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
158	10 April 1893	William Swanger Fanny Elizabeth Wratt	William Sawyer Fanny Elizabeth Wratt 💍 1893/161	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	43 48	Avondale Mr. Eden	3 years 12 years	Dwelling house of Fanny E. Wratt	93/977	10 April 1893	Rev. G. O. Cort
159	10 April 1893	Charles Graham Mary Ann Codlin	Charles Malmaquest Mary Ann Codlin 💍 1893/386	Bachelor Widow	Mariner	33 38	Auckland Auckland	8 years 38 years	Registry Office	93/1010	10 April 1893	J. Owenford, Reg.
160	11 April 1893	Henry Graham Violet Cecilia Andrew	Harry Graham Duncan Violet Cecilia Andrew 💍 1893/387	Bachelor Spinster	Actor	23 22	Auckland Auckland	3 weeks 22 years	Registry Office	93/1011	11 April 1893	J. Owenford, Reg.
161	13 April 1893	Joseph Conway Allom Alicia Frazer		Bachelor Spinster	Rope maker	24 21	Epsom Eden Terrace	18 years 6 years	Church of St. Marks	93/958	13 April 1893	Rev. J. Richards, Ch. of Engd.
162	13 April 1893	Robert White Elizabeth Hoare	Robert White Elizabeth Hawkin 💍 1893/382	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	35 24	Auckland Auckland	30 years 24 years	Church of Sacred Heart	93/1006	13 April 1893	Rev. J. Gillam, Roman Catholic
163	13 April 1893	Alfred Henry Johnson Ellen Cowries	Alfred Henry Johnson Ellen Downes 💍 1893/364	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist	26 21	Auckland Auckland	8 months 8 months	Registry Office	93/1012	13 April 1893	J. Owenford, Reg.
164	14 April 1893	Ernest Robertson Eliza Ann Christie	Ernest Roberton Eliza Ann Wilkie 💍 1893/83	Bachelor Spinster	M.D.	30 28	Auckland Auckland	30 years 7 years	St. Sepulchre's Church	93/949	14 April 1893	Rev. C. M. Nelson, Ch. of England
165	15 April 1893	William Sherson Annie Manawhattle	William Sherson Annie Maria Whittle 💍 1893/2138	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 24	Auckland Parnell	24 years 20 years	Church of St. Mary	93/2042	15 April 1893	Rev. G. MacMurray, Ch. of England
166	15 April 1893	Peter McCabe Elizabeth Price	Peter McCabe Elizabeth Pearce 💍 1893/365 Joseph McCabe Elizabeth Marshall 💍 1893/3445	Bachelor Widow	Carter	26 23	Richmond Rd. Richmond Rd.	26 years 23 years	Registry Office	93/1013	15 April 1893	J. Owenford, 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).