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 675

District of Christchurch 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
227	20 June 1893	Thomas True Annie Smith	John Moffat Cameron Annie Smith 💍 1893/2147	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Smith	29 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 7 years	House of Mr. Fred Armstrong	93/1613	20 June 1893	Rev. T. W. Isitt, Wesleyan
228	20 June 1893	Martin Frederick Laffey Bridget Higgins	Martin Frederick Laffey Bridget Higgins 💍 1893/1687	Widower Spinster	Farmer Servant	33 27	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 years	Catholic Church, Barbadoes Street	93/1651	20 June 1893	Rev. Father Cummings, Roman Catholic
229	21 June 1893	Job Hartwell Jane Hayes	Job Hartwell Jane Hayes 💍 1893/1736	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Dressmaker	30 30	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 30 years	Registrar's Office	93/1723	21 June 1893	Registrar, J. J. Pauling
230	21 June 1893	William Scott Ada Jean Fleming	William Scott Ada Jean Fleming 💍 1893/1708	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Dressmaker	26 26	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 15 years	Holy Trinity Church, Avonside	93/1609	21 June 1893	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Church of England
231	26 June 1893	Robert William Rusbridge Rosina Haulder	Robert William Rusbridge Rosina Stanton 💍 1893/2395	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	28 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 10 years	Registrar's Office	93/2528	26 June 1893	Registrar, J. J. Pauling
232	26 June 1893	Benjamin Kayes Edith Maude Jones	Benjamin Baynes Edith Maude Jones 💍 1893/1669	Bachelor Spinster		About 38 About 28	Christchurch Christchurch	30 years 10 months	House of Rev. J. Orchard, Ferry Road	93/1682	26 June 1893	Rev. J. Orchard, Bible Christian
233	27 June 1893	Clement Carnegie Crymble Mary Elizabeth Johnston	Clement Carnegie Crymble Duncan Mary Elizabeth Johnston 💍 1893/1692	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	42 24	Christchurch Christchurch	35 years 1 year	St. Lukes Church	93/1656	27 June 1893	Rev. Arch. Lingard, 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).