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 593

District of Wellington 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
104	4 April 1893	Thomas Kingston Hillaria Wild Smith	Thomas Kingston Hillaria Wildsmith 💍 1893/1518	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	26 26	Wellington Wellington	3 days months	Baptist Church, Vivian Street	93/1408		4 April 1893	Revd C. Dallaston
105	4 April 1893	George Allman Ada Louisa de Boedo	George Allman Ada Louisa De Borde 💍 1893/21	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	24 27	Wellington Petone	5 days 2 weeks	Wesleyan Church, Petone	93/1405		4 April 1893	Revd J. N. Griffin
106	4 April 1893	James Gates Chapman Maud Penalliff	James Gates Chapman Maud Penallife Wiggins 💍 1893/1527	Bachelor Spinster	Wesleyan Minister	27 23	Wellington Featherston Terrace	1 year years	House of Mr W. Wiggins, Featherston Terrace	93/1394		4 April 1893	Revd J. J. Lewis
107	4 April 1893	Alfred Elliott Dean Zellina Charlotte Watson	Alfred Elliott Dean Tellira Charlotte Watson 💍 1893/2733	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	29 29	Wellington Watson Street	years years	House of Mr Watson, Watson Street	93/2872		4 April 1893	Revd C. Y. Ogg
108	4 April 1893	Arnold Berg Maria Walton	Arnold Berg Maria Dalton 💍 1893/1449	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman	43 29	Wellington Wellington	4 months years	St Mary of the Angels	93/1371		4 April 1893	Very Revd J. Devoy
109	4 April 1893	Isaac Young Eliza Talbot	Isaac Young Eliza Talbott 💍 1893/1627	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	50 40	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office, Wellington	93/1426		4 April 1893	W. T. Wyatt
110	4 April 1893	Walter Ryder Laura Riley	Walter Ryder Laura Riley 💍 1893/1625	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	22 22	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	Registrars office, Wellington	93/1424		4 April 1893	W. T. Wyatt
111	5 April 1893	William Odden Douthwaite Bessie James	William Odden Southee Bessie James 💍 1893/1519	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	26 20	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Pauls Cathedral	93/1409		5 April 1893	Revd T. H. Sprott
112	6 April 1893	Ernest Livermore Mary Agnes Herd	Ernest Livermore Mary Agnes Hirst 💍 1893/521	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	40 21	Wellington Patea	1 year 3 days	St Georges Anglican Church, Patea	93/1168		6 April 1893	Revd A. P. Clarke
113	8 April 1893	Reden Ralph Herd Ellen Fitzgerald	Redan Ralph Hunt Ellen Fitzgerald 💍 1893/3969	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	21 19	Petone Karori	years months	Roman Catholic Church, Lower Hutt	93/1400	Ellen Murphy, mother
114	8 April 1893	Frederick Hughes Ross Margaret Ann O'Farrell	Fredrick Knight Reeves Margaret Anne O'Farrell 💍 1893/1465	Bachelor Spinster	Journalist	27 28	Wellington Wellington	months years	St Marys Cathedral	93/1365		8 April 1893	Revd J. C. Hewson
115	8 April 1893	George Henry Backhouse Lucy Jane Eden	George Henry Backhouse Lucy Jane Eden 💍 1893/1628	Bachelor Spinster	Coal Dealer	24 21	Wellington Wellington	years months	Registrars office, Wellington	93/1427		8 April 1893	W. T. Wyatt
116	10 April 1893	George Arthur Hassell Rhoda Jane Williams	George Arthur Hussell Rhoda June Williams 💍 1893/1629	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	46 48	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office, Wellington	93/1428		10 April 1893	W. T. Wyatt
117	10 April 1893	George Webb Agnes McDonald	George Webb Agnes McDonald 💍 1893/1450 George Smith Alice McDonald 💍 1894/100	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	21 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Mary of the Angels	93/1372		10 April 1893	Very Revd J. Devoy
118	12 April 1893	Daniel O'Flynn Flora McLean	Daniel O'Flynn Flora McLean 💍 1893/1451	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 22	Wellington Wellington	8 weeks years	St Mary of the Angels	93/1373		12 April 1893	Very Revd J. Devoy

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).