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 827

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 September 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
296	18 July 1893	Benjamin Bishop Mary Ann Goodman	Benjamin Bishop Mary Ann Goodman 💍 1893/2031	Bachelor Widow	Mariner	32 38	Auckland Newton	1 week 6 mos Auckland	Registrars Office	93/2084		15 July 1893	E. H. Lyons, Registrar
297	19 July 1893	Wm. Fitzpatrick Mabel Harley	William Fitzpatrick Mabel Harley 💍 1893/2032	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	19 21	Ponsonby Ponsonby	2 yrs 6 mos Auckland	Registrars Office	93/2085	James Fitzpatrick, Father	19 July 1893	E. H. Lyons, Registrar
298	19 July 1893	Alexr. Schultze Louisa Roe Trafford	Alexander Schultze Louisa Roe Trafford 💍 1893/2086	Bachelor Widow	Hotel Keeper	48 full	Auckland Auckland	10 yrs 2 Vincent St.	House of Mrs. Trafford, 2 Vincent St.	93/2140		19 July 1893	Revd. J. Shame, Presbyterian
299	19 July 1893	Francis Frederick Angerstein May Chapman Helene Catherine Johanna Paulsen	Francis Frederick Augerstein Hay Chapman Helena Catherine Johanna Paulsen 💍 1893/2305	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	25 22	Shumata Woodside	1 yr 3 ists	Church of England, Woodside	93/2198		19 July 1893	Revd. S. D. Boyes, Ch. of England
300	19 July 1893	George Rowland Hutchinson Harriet Crisp	George Rowland Hutchinson Harriet Crisp 💍 1893/4029	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	21 25	Ponsonby Remuera	14 yrs 4 years	House of Mrs. Crisp, Remuera	93/2116		19 July 1893	Revd. J. Serpell, Wesleyan
301	19 July 1893	Herbert Smith Phoebe Isabella Wood	Herbert Smith Phoebe Isabella Wood 💍 1893/595	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	20 18	Auckland Epsom	20 yrs 18 years	St. Mark's Church, Remuera	93/2110	John Thos. Smith, Father	19 July 1893	Revd. I. Richard, Ch. of England
302	20 July 1893	Samuel Bradley Corrigan Florence Amy Hilton	Samuel Bradley Corrigan Florence Amy Hilton 💍 1893/609	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	36 27	Otakeho Maungaturoto	2 mos 3 months	Bishop's Court, Parnell	93/2133		20 July 1893	Bishop Cowie, Ch. 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 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).