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 837

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
371	18 September 1893	Richard Thomas Fry Georgina Harris	Michael Thomas Fry Georgina Harrison 💍 1893/598	Bachelor Widow	Butcher	35 36	Ponsonby Ponsonby	1 year 5 years	All Saint Church	93/2125		18 September 1893	Rev. H. Calder, Church of England
372	21 September 1893	William Dibble Ada Mary Bacon	William Dibble Ada Mary Bacon 💍 1893/2065	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 27	Three Kings Mount Albert	2 years 2 years	St Lukes Church	93/2135		21 September 1893	Rev. S. Laishley, Church of England
373	21 September 1893	Andrew Carlton Lillian Moxon	Andrew Carltony Lillian Moxon 💍 1893/2048	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	38 17	Waipu Kauohi	6 years 2 years	Registrars Office, Auckland	92/2101	H. Moxon, Father	21 September 1893	S. H. Lyons, Registrar
374	22 September 1893	Archibald Wilson Hannah Messenger	Archibald McFadgean Wilson Hannah Messenger 💍 1893/2814	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	28 28	Birkenhead Birkenhead	20 years 8 years	Wesleyan Church	93/2884		22 September 1893	Rev. J. Ward, Wesleyan
375	25 September 1893	Edward Bromham Margaret Rayment	Edward Bronlund Margaret Raymond 💍 1893/2049 Edward Coffey Margaret Daley 💍 1893/3849	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	25 20	Coromandel Port Charles	14 years 15 years	Registrars Office	93/2102	Matilda Taylor, Mother	25 September 1893	S. H. Lyons, Registrar
376	25 September 1893	James Cornishe Mitchell Alice Mary Stevens	James Cornishe Mitchell Alice Mary Stevens 💍 1893/2050	Bachelor Spinster	Mill Hand	22 19	Parnell Parnell	13 years 5 years	Registrars Office, Auckland	93/2103	William Stevens, Father	25 September 1893	S. H. Lyons, Registrar
377	25 September 1893	Richard Percy Johnson Ray Emily Turner	Richard Percy Johnston Ray Emily Turner 💍 1893/2952 Alexander Maule Emily Turner 💍 1893/1486	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 34	Mount Eden Mount Eden	6 years 8 years	St Barnabas Church	93/2925		25 September 1893	Rev. W. H. Johnston, Church of England
378	26 September 1893	William Arthur Wood Ellen Haslam	William Arthur Wood Ellen Haslam 💍 1893/2809	Bachelor Spinster	Traffic Inspector H. S. R.	38 26	Parnell Avondale	4 years 10 years	House of H. S. R. Haslam	93/2831		26 September 1893	Rev. S. O. Perry, Methodist

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).