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 795

District of Riverton 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
361	10 April 1893	Walter Day Hails Mary Dwyer	Walter Mury Hailes Mary Dwyer 💍 1893/2881	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	43 years 26 years	Wairio Wairio	10 years	Roman Catholic Church Riverton	93/2982		10 April 1893	Revd Father Walsh (Roman Catholic)
362	12 April 1893	Patrick Clifford Junr Margaret Clifford	Patrick Clifford Margaret Clifford 💍 1893/2882	Bachelor Spinster	Platelayer	29 years 20 years	Waicola Wairio	7 years 12 years	Home of Thos Clifford Wairio	93/2983	Thos Clifford father of Margaret Clifford	25 April 1893	Revd Father Walsh (Roman Catholic)
363	18 April 1893	John Coulter Elizabeth White	John Comber Elizabeth White 💍 1893/2022	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic Servant	24 years 21 years	Riverton Riverton	3 days 3 days	Office of Registrar Riverton	93/2014		18 April 1893	Mr. Eyes Registrar Riverton
364	19 April 1893	Arthur Allison Isabella Watson	Arthur Allison Isabella Watson Stormonth 💍 1893/2001	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 years 33 years	Drummond Drummond	4 years 18 years	House of John Stormont	93/2017		19 April 1893	Revd Robt Ewen (Presbyterian)
365	22 April 1893	John Keen Jane Peck	John Keen Jane Beck 💍 1893/2004	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 years 27 years	Wairio Wairio	4 years 16 years	House of Joseph Peck Wairio	93/2020		22 April 1893	Revd Macdonald (Presbyterian)
366	22 April 1893	Walter Black Charlotte Amelia Jaggers	Walter Black Charlotte Amelia Jaggers 💍 1893/2003	Bachelor Spinster	Rabbit Agent Teacher	23 years 23 years	Nightcaps Nightcaps	3 days 3 weeks	School House Lowes Nightcaps	93/2019		22 April 1893	Revd Macdonald (Presbyterian)
367	24 April 1893	Richard Sam James Annie Hardwick	Richard Samuel James Annie Hardwick 💍 1893/2008	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 years 26 years	Otautau Otautau	25 years 12 years	Church of England Riverton	93/2024		24 April 1893	Revd G.W. Christian (Church of England)
368	29 April 1893	Patrick Chamberlain Mary O'Donnell	Patrick Chamberlain Mary ODonnell 💍 1893/2883	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	35 years 23 years	Mere Bush Fairfax	12 years 1 year	Roman Catholic Church Riverton	93/2954		29 April 1893	Revd Father Walsh (Roman Catholic)
369	9 May 1893	Malcolm Mouat Anna Bella Scobie	Malcolm Mouat Anna Bella Scobie 💍 1893/2006	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	41 years 23 years	Caston Bush Caston Bush	18 years 14 years	House of Wm Scobie East Bush	93/2022		9 May 1893	Revd Macdonald (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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).