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 919

District of Inglewood 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
166	5 July 1893	John Heaver Emma Kennedy	John Hewer Emma Kennedy 💍 1893/2937	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	21 25	Inglewood Inglewood	3 days 3 weeks	The Church of England Inglewood	93/2821	5 July 1893	Rev. A. English
167	10 July 1893	Henry Hallett Mace Edith Agnes Ellis	Henry Hallet Mace Edith Agnes Ellis 💍 1893/2938	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	22 27	Inglewood Inglewood	3 years 1 year	The Church of England Inglewood	93/2822	10 July 1893	Rev. A. English
168	22 July 1893	John Hing Maria Catherine Schicken	John Hinz Maria Catharina Schicker 💍 1893/2180	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 21	Moa District Separa	18 years 8 years	The Roman Catholic Church at Inglewood	93/2235	22 July 1893	Rev. I. McKenna
169	31 July 1893	Charles Coxhead Jessie Taylor	Charles Coxhead Jessie Taylor 💍 1893/2788	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 21	Moa District Norfolk Road	1 week 14 years	The residence of Mr. R. H. Taylor	93/2823	31 July 1893	Rev. A. English
170	10 August 1893	Henry Spry Matthews Annie Rachel Moffatt	Henry Spry Matthews Annie Rachel Moffatt 💍 1893/2480	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	44 30	Moa District Waitara	3 days 4 years	Church of England Waitara	93/2260	10 August 1893	Rev. F. L. Baker
171	26 August 1893	James Carson Hannah Hollis	James Carson Hannah Hollis 💍 1893/2179	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 21	Moa District Moa District	1 week 18 years	The residence of Mr. Henry Hollis Surrey Road	93/2237	26 August 1893	Rev. T. F. Jones
172	23 September 1893	Joseph George Turner Eleanor Turner	Joseph George Eleanor Turner 💍 1893/3106	Widower Widow	Carrier	44 43	Inglewood Inglewood	17 years 1 year	The Wesleyan Chapel Inglewood	93/3181	23 September 1893	Rev. T. F. Jones
173	25 September 1893	John Jacob Schumacher Agatha Richenbacher	John Jacob Schumacher Agatha Rickenbacker 💍 1893/2181	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 30	Moa District Moa District	6 years 14 years	The Roman Catholic Church Inglewood	93/2239	25 September 1893	Rev. James Flood

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).