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 831

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
324	11 August 1893	Adam Enoch Beyers Jeannette Goldie Scale	Adam Enoch Byers Jeannette Gertrude Seale 💍 1893/2055	Bachelor Spinster	Horse Trainer	23 20	Green Lane Remuera	2 years 7 years	House of W. J. K. Scale	93/2107	J. K. Scale, Father	11 August 1893	Rev. G. B. Munro, Presbyterian
325	12 August 1893	George Ernest Inger Martha Stubbs	George Ernest Inger Martha Stubbs 💍 1893/3904	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	25 22	Port Albert Devonport	25 years 1.5 years	House of W. J. Stubbs	93/2901		12 August 1893	Rev. J. C. Brebham, Cong. Indep.
326	14 August 1893	Hugh Brown Annabella Archdall Shearer	Hugh Brown Annabella Archibald Shearer 💍 1893/2076	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	29 25	Auckland Auckland	3 years 18 months	House of W. H. A. Brown	93/2136		14 August 1893	Rev. H. W. J. Hulle, Cong. Indep.
327	14 August 1893	Arthur Joseph Prescott Laura Mitchison Byers	Arthur Joseph Prescott Laura Mitchinson Byers 💍 1893/2056	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	27 20	Coromandel Remuera	14 years 20 years	House of Joseph Byers	93/2108	Joseph Byers, Father	14 August 1893	Rev. S. B. Munro, Presbyterian
328	15 August 1893	James Henry Purdy Annie Witheridge	James Henry Purdy Annie Witheridge 💍 1893/596	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	27 24	Ponsonby Newton Road	27 years 24 years	House of J. W. J. Witheridge	93/2121		15 August 1893	Rev. J. Guy, Prim. Meth.
329	16 August 1893	Frederic Arthur Ludlow Rich Annie Charlotte Rich	Frederic Arthur Ludlow Rich Annie Charlotte Rich 💍 1893/610	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	27 29	Parnell Parnell	12 years 1 year	Bishop's Chapel	93/2134		16 August 1893	Rt. Rev. W. G. Cowie, Ch. of England
330	16 August 1893	John Christmas Carter Laura Burt	John Christmas Laura Burt 💍 1893/2060	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	23 19	Eden Terrace Auckland	2 years 6 months	Registrar's Office, Auckland	93/2090	Harry Roth, Father	16 August 1893	E. H. Lyons, Registrar
331	17 August 1893	John O'Dwyer Mary Cleary	John O'Dwyer Mary Glevey 💍 1893/2068	Widower Spinster	Labourer	35 32	Ponsonby Parnell	9 years 5 years	Roman Catholic Church	93/2146		17 August 1893	Rev. Ch. Reichard, Roman Catholic

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).