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 561

District of Feilding 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
373	13 April 1893	George Thomas Bryan Frances Goodwin	George Thomas Bryan Frances Goodwin 💍 1893/1422	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 20	Pemberton Pemberton	4 years 2 years	Residence of William Goodwin, Pemberton	93/1243	William Goodwin, father	13 April 1893	Reverend George Element
374	21 April 1893	Mark Petersen Harriet Vickerstaff	Mark Petersen Harriet Vickerstaff 💍 1893/1418	Bachelor Spinster	Labour	26 25	Feilding Feilding	7 days 3 months	Registrars Office, Feilding	93/1239		21 April 1893	The Registrar, Feilding
375	29 April 1893	Edward Pearson Mason Magaretha Maria Dorothea Bensemann	Edward Pearson Mason Margarete Marie Dorothea Bensemann 💍 1893/1399	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 22	Waituna West Waituna West	5 years 8 years	Residence of John Albert Bensemann, Waituna West	93/1319		29 April 1893	Revd. Carl Conrad Wilhelm Meyer
376	16 May 1893	George Solomon Smith Catherine Thomas	George Solomon Smith Catherine Thomas 💍 1893/4167	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 22	Feilding Feilding	19 years 1 year	Salvation Army Barracks, Feilding	93/1398		16 May 1893	Mr. Thomas Edgar Vince (Major Vince)
377	22 May 1893	Henry Adsett Junior Amy Streeter	Henry Adsett Amy Streeter 💍 1893/1412	Widower Spinster	Sawmiller	33 24	Colyton Makino	4 days 19 years	Residence of Charles Streeter, Makino	93/1238		22 May 1893	Revd. George Element
378	23 May 1893	Charles London Junior Catherine Waugh	Charles London Junr Catherine Waugh 💍 1893/1419 Oswald John Ashton Catherine Waugh 💍 1893/1421	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 18	Birmingham Birmingham	6 years 4 years	Wesleyan Church, Birmingham	93/1240	Thomas Waugh, father	23 May 1893	Revd. William Edmund Birks
379	27 May 1893	Oswald John Ashton Catherine Waugh	Oswald John Ashton Catherine Waugh 💍 1893/1421 Charles London Junr Catherine Waugh 💍 1893/1419	Bachelor Spinster	Store Manager	24 22	Birmingham Birmingham	2 years 4 years	Wesleyan Church, Birmingham	93/1242		27 May 1893	Revd. William Edmund Birks
380	29 May 1893	John London Agnes Waugh	John London Agnes Waugh 💍 1893/1420	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 18	Birmingham Birmingham	6 years 4 years	Wesleyan Church, Birmingham	93/1241	James Waugh, father	29 May 1893	Revd. William Edmund Birks
381	5 June 1893	Edward Henry Summersfield Sarah Annie James	Edward Henry Cummerfield Sarah Annie James 💍 1893/1344	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 19	Apiti Feilding	2 weeks 18 years	Anglican Church, Feilding	93/1236	Thomas Poole, father	5 June 1893	Revd. Arthur Hermon, Feilding
382	8 June 1893	Gordon Christian Hare Lilian Jenkins	Gordon Christian Hare Lilian Irmains 💍 1893/1401	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 23	Cumminghams Cumminghams	6 years 23 years	Anglican Church, Feilding	93/1237		8 June 1893	Revd. Arthur Hermon, Feilding

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).