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 749

District of Mosgiel 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
8	10 April 1893	Peter Cray Sinclair Jane Brown Turnbull	Peter Craig Sinclair Jane Brown Turnbull 💍 1893/1848	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	28 years 26 years	Mosgiel Junction Mosgiel Junction	5 years 26 years	House of Sydney [illegible]	93/1928		10 April 1893	Rev W. Will, Presbyterian
9	18 April 1893	John Thomas Nimmo Elizabeth Jaffray	John Thomas Nimmo Elizabeth Hunter Jaffray 💍 1893/1849	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 years 30 years	East Taieri East Taieri	18 years 30 years	House of William Jaffray of Saddlehill	93/1929		18 April 1893	Rev W. Will, Presbyterian
10	19 April 1893	David Scott Jeannie Sinclair	David Scott Jeanie Sinclair 💍 1893/1845	Bachelor Spinster	Millworker	25 years 23 years	Mosgiel Mosgiel	25 years 12 years	House of Simon Sinclair of Mosgiel	93/1925		19 April 1893	Rev J.M. McKerrow, Presbyterian
11	8 May 1893	William Young Sarah Emma Taylor	William Young Sarah Emma Taylor 💍 1893/1846 William Waddel Hannah Emily Taylor 💍 1893/122	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 years 20 years	Mosgiel Mosgiel	8 days 20 years East Taieri	Office of Registrar	93/1926	William Taylor, Father	8 May 1893	D. MacLeod, Registrar
12	7 June 1893	John Gamble Jemima Flett	John Gamble Jemima Flett 💍 1893/1847	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 years 23 years	East Taieri East Taieri	1 year 33 years	Office of Registrar	93/1927		7 June 1893	D. MacLeod, Registrar
13	16 June 1893	Walter James Stander Elizabeth Heslop	Walter James Standen Elizabeth Hislop 💍 1893/1986	Bachelor Spinster	Miller	32 years 26 years	Mosgiel Mosgiel	9 days 7 years	House of Robert Dickson	93/1931		16 June 1893	Rev Alfred North, Baptist
14	19 June 1893	Alexander Neilson Harris Marion Murdoch	Alexander Nielson Harris Marion Murdoch 💍 1893/1975	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 years 27 years	Mosgiel Mosgiel	3 days 27 years	House of Gavin Murdoch of Mosgiel	93/1930		13 June 1893	Rev W. Will, Presbyterian

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).