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 849

District of Drury 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
13	1 July 1893	Sydney William Burdemore Elizabeth Pellow	Sydney William Burchmore Elizabeth Pellow 💍 1893/2099	Bachelor Spinister	Warehouse	30 24	Tuakau Tuakau	4 days 20 yrs	House of William Pellow Senr	93/2178	1 July 1893	Rev. E. J. Garland Church of England
14	29 July 1893	Alexander Grant Isabella Hewitt	Alexander Grant Isabella Hewitt 💍 1893/4007	Bachelor Spinister	Farmer	34 33	Waiorongomai Buckland	2 yrs 4 months	House of John Johnston	93/2172	29 July 1893	Rev. E. J. Garland Church of England
15	2 August 1893	William Gray Eliza McNally	William Gray Eliza McNally 💍 1893/2097	Bachelor Spinister	Farmer Dressmaker	29 21	Pukekohe Pukekohe	12 yrs 18 yrs	House of Robert McNally	93/2176	2 August 1893	Rev. W. F. Findlay Presbyterian Min.
16	23 August 1893	John Henry Dashwood Elizabeth Douglas	John Henry Dashwood Elizabeth Douglas 💍 1893/2096 John Richardson Elizabeth Douglas 💍 1893/377	Bachelor Spinister	Carpenter Dressmaker	25 23	Churchill Churchill	10 locals 6 months	House of Wm George Douglas	93/2175	23 August 1893	Rev. W. F. Findlay Presbyterian Min.
17	29 August 1893	John Thomas Saunders Helen Longhi	John Thomas Saunders Helen Wright 💍 1893/2094	Bachelor Spinister	Farm Manager	28 22	Pokeno Valley Pokeno Valley	1 week 19 yrs	House of Robert Longhi	93/2173	29 August 1893	Rev. Saml Griffith Wesleyan Min.
18	2 September 1893	Samuel Jamison Laughlin Annie Lillias Wilson	Samuel Jamison Laughlin Anne Lillias Munro Wilson 💍 1893/2092	Bachelor Spinister	Gold Battery Manager	33 29	Clevedon Clevedon	4 days 28 yrs	House of James Saunders Wilson	93/2170	2 September 1893	Rev. Thos. Home Presbyterian Min.
19	9 September 1893	W. Chapman Morgan Margaret Alexandrina Strong	William Chapman Morgan Margaret Alexandrina Strong 💍 1893/2095	Bachelor Spinister	Farmer	28 22	Bombay Bombay	4 days 22 yrs	Presbyterian Church Bombay	93/2174	9 September 1893	Rev. W. F. Findlay Presbyterian Min.

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).