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 705

District of Quianau 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
14	1 April 1893	George Berry Emmew McCornels	George Berry Emma McCoombs 💍 1893/2739	Bachelor Spinister	Carpenter	51 29	Quianau Quianau	30 years 29 years	Residence of Mr George Berry, Quianau	93/2855		1 April 1893	Rev. William James Williams, Wesleyan Minister
15	8 April 1893	Henry James Hill Mary Coppies	Henry James Hill Mary Coppin 💍 1893/1870	Bachelor Spinister	Butcher	32 24	Quianau Quianau	14 years 2 years	Primitive Methodist Church, Quianau	93/1796		8 April 1893	Rev. Frederick W. Boys, Primitive Methodist Minister
16	8 April 1893	John Sullivan Jane Gray	John Sullivan Jane Day 💍 1893/1863	Bachelor Spinister	Labourer	41 21	Levels Crossed Levels Crossed	10 years 20 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Pleasant Point	93/1789		8 April 1893	Rev. Augustine Lepetit, Roman Catholic Clergyman
17	10 April 1893	Alexander Hastic Mary Ann Crawford	Alexander Hastie Mary Ann Crawford 💍 1893/1878 Alfred Alexander William Compton Mary Ann Crawford 💍 1893/2343	Bachelor Spinister	Ploughman	40 35	St Andrews Quianau	16 years 8 days	Residence of Rev. William Gillies, Quianau	93/1780		10 April 1893	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
18	24 April 1893	Albert Martin Laura Shave	Albert Martin Laura Shave 💍 1893/1860	Bachelor Spinister	Labourer	33 29	Quianau Quianau	7 days 7 days	St Mary Episcopalian Church, Upper Otaro	93/1786		24 April 1893	Rev. Lawrence Carslay Brady, Church of England Minister
19	3 May 1893	William Pye Alison Waugh	William Pye Alisan Waugh 💍 1893/1861	Bachelor Spinister	Labourer	23 18	Wainataitai Wainataitai	15 months 18 years	Registrars Office, Quianau	93/1787	Robert Waugh, Father	3 May 1893	Thomas Hawley, Registrar of Marriages, Quianau
20	6 May 1893	John Adamson Honora Quinn	John Adamson Honora Quinn 💍 1893/1859	Bachelor Spinister	Labourer Domestic Servant	24 23	Quianau Quianau	4 days 3 Weeks	Residence of Rev. Joseph White, Pleasant Point	93/1783		6 May 1893	Rev. Joseph White, Presbyterian Minister
21	8 May 1893	John O'Rourke Annie Cullen	John O'Bourke Annie Cullen 💍 1893/1875	Bachelor Spinister	Labourer	29 28	Quianau Quianau	14 years 20 years	Roman Catholic Church, Quianau	93/1777		8 May 1893	Rev. Louis Hurlin, Roman Catholic Clergyman
22	15 May 1893	George McNichall Harriett Javenah	George McNicholl Harriett Tavenah 💍 1893/1869	Bachelor Spinister	Bootmaker	36 20	Quianau Quianau	3 years 3 years	Residence of Mr. Frederick Alderton, Quianau	93/1795	George Javenah, Father	15 May 1893	Mr. Frederick Alderton, Salvation Army
23	15 May 1893	John Henry Scott Isabella Agnes Millar	John Henry Scott Isabella Agnes Millar 💍 1893/1879	Bachelor Spinister	Labourer	26 21	Washdyke Quianau	1 year 18 years	Presbyterian Church, Cullmantrum near Quianau	93/1781		15 May 1893	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister

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).