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 653

District of Akaroa 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
T	15 April 1893	James McLeod Eva Reynish	James McCloud Eva Reynish 💍 1893/1911	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	30 17	Little River Pigeon Bay	2 years 17 years	at the house of George Reynish, Pigeon Bay	93/1564	Geo. Reynish, father	15 April 1893	H. H. S. Hamilton, Church of England
2	1 April 1893	George Macin Edith Susannah Henningway		Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	28 20	Akaroa Akaroa	15 years 20 years	at the house of Chas. Schubert, Akaroa	93/1560	Sarah Maria Schubert, mother	1 April 1893	J. B. Finlay, presbyterian
3	12 April 1893	John Albert Laub Smith Angeline Armstrong Smith	John Albert Lamb Smith Angelino Armstrong 💍 1893/1920	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Agent	31 30	Christchurch Akaroa	10 years 30 years	at the house of George Armstrong, Akaroa	93/1567		12 April 1893	T. J. Smyth, Church of England
5	24 April 1893	Martin George Daly Helena Rodrigues	Martin George Daly Helena Rodrigues 💍 1893/1900	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	32 31	Akaroa Akaroa	27 years 31 years	at the house of A. Rodrigues, Akaroa	93/1563		24 April 1893	H. G. Bowers, Roman Catholic
6	1 June 1893	Daniel Rodgers Ann Eliza Sheateworth	Daniel Rodgers Ann Eliza Shuttleworth 💍 1893/1918	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	33 26	Little Akaloa Charlton	17 years 20 years	at the house of Robert Sheateworth, Charlton	93/1565		1 June 1893	H. H. S. Hamilton, Church of England
7	10 June 1893	Louis Vincent May Mary Jane Mein	Louis Vincent Kay Mary Jane Mein 💍 1893/1919	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	32 30	Akaroa Pigeon Bay	3 days 1 month	at the house of Mr. Holmes, Pigeon Bay	93/1566		10 June 1893	H. H. S. Hamilton, Church of England
8	13 June 1893	Albert William Ound Clara Emily Eveleigh	Albert William Orme Clara Emily Eveleigh 💍 1893/1614	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22 24	Wainui Wainui	13 years 1 month	at the house of James Reed, Wainui	93/1561		13 June 1893	J. B. Finlay, presbyterian
9	17 June 1893	Horace Knight Baker Isaac Eliza Samuel Bind	Horace Knight Baker Mae Eliza Fannie Brind 💍 1893/1615	Bachelor Spinster	Actor Pianiste	24 25	Akaroa Akaroa	4 days 4 days	at the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Akaroa	93/1562		17 June 1893	H. W. Dawson, Deputy Registrar
10	24 June 1893	Henry Arthur Rutter Amelia Sarah Scott Boleyn	Henry Arthur Rutter Amelia Sarah Scott Boleyn 💍 1893/2424	Widower Spinster	Master Mariner	37 27	Little Akaloa Stony Bay	14 years 27 years	at the house of James Boleyn, Stony Bay	93/2572		24 June 1893	H. H. S. Hamilton, Church of England

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).