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 1007

District of Wellington 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
305	21 September 1893	Charles Hellyer Emma Frank	Charles McGee Emma Frank 💍 1893/2580	Widower Widow	Settler	60 60	Wellington Wellington	3 days 5 days	St. Mary of the Angels	93/2435		21 September 1893	Very Rev. J. C. Devoy
306	23 September 1893	Roland D'Anvers Selina Elizabeth McKelvie	Roland D'Anvers Selina Elizabeth McKelvie 💍 1893/2821	Bachelor Widow	Same	49 47	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	St. Peters Church	93/2880		22 September 1893	Rev. W. C. Waters
307	25 September 1893	Charles John Kent Florence Victoria Wood	Charles John Kent Johnston Florence Victoria Wood 💍 1893/2508	Bachelor Spinster	Leader	24 22	Wellington Wellington	3 days 1 Week	House of Mrs. Carmon, Tasman Street	93/2425		25 September 1893	Rev. G. K. Elliott
308	26 September 1893	Alexander Mansfield Janet White law	Alexander Worsfold Janet Whitelaw 💍 1893/2501	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Builder	22 27	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	House of Mr. Hewest, Banker Terrace	93/2418		26 September 1893	Rev. W. H. Beck
309	26 September 1893	Frederick George Thickey Mary Ann Jane Stops	Frederick George Albert Stuckey Mary Ann Jane Pope 💍 1893/2879	Bachelor Spinster	School Teacher	23 20	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	St. Johns Church, Dixon Street	93/2980		26 September 1893	Rev. G. Paterson
310	26 September 1893	George Henry Morgan Mary Fellingham	George Henry Morgan Martha Rebecca Fellingham 💍 1893/4067	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 21	Tawa Flat Wellington	years	House of Mr. Morgan, Takapu	93/2947		26 September 1893	Rev. J. Barnett
311	26 September 1893	Clifford Clifford Emma Wilkinson	Clifford Lyford Emma Frances Wilkinson 💍 1893/2225	Bachelor Spinster	Trainer	24 17	Wellington Wellington	10 days	Registrars office, Wellington	93/2394	Alfred Percy Wilkinson, Father	26 September 1893	W. T. Wyatt
312	27 September 1893	Arthur Linford Johnson Anne Elizabeth Hill	Arthur Linford Johnson Ann Elizabeth Hill 💍 1893/2507	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	20 17	Wellington Wellington	years	House of Mr. Later, Wallace Street	93/2424	Peter Johnson, Father; Herbert Hill, Father	27 September 1893	Rev. W. Oliver
313	28 September 1893	William Lee Annie King	William Lee Annie King 💍 1893/2226	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 17	Johnsonville Johnsonville	years	Registrars office, Wellington	93/2395	Emma Rickett, Mother	28 September 1893	W. T. Wyatt

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).