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 1096

District of 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
783	13 July 1893	George Robert Dawson Dorcas Henry	George Robert Dawson Dorcas Henry 💍 1893/2526	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	73 20	Ohoka Rangiora	15 years 20 years	Wesleyan Church, Rangiora	93/2636	Hugh Henry, father	13 July 1893	S G Garlick
784	14 July 1893	Alexander Henderson Isabella Blackett	Alexander Henderson Isabella Blackett 💍 1893/2799	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer none	84 27	East Oxford Rangiora	12 years 24 years England	Church of England	93/2825		14 July 1893	F P Fendall
785	21 July 1893	Percy Hugh Pritchett Lizzie Henrietta Forlesse	Percy Hugh Pritchett Lizzie Henrietta Torlene 💍 1893/2543	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk in Holy Orders none	32 33	Kaiapoi Rangiora	4 months 33 years	Church of England	93/2631		21 July 1893	F P Fendall
786	28 July 1893	Alexander Lawrence Francis Sarah Batchelor	Christopher John Alexander Lawrence Francis Sarah Batchelor 💍 1893/2544	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer home	21 19	Ashley Ashley	5 months 19 years	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Rangiora	93/2632	mother	28 July 1893	Donald Kyrrison, Registrar
787	29 July 1893	Henry Sommer Emily Kinley	Henry Sommer Emily Kinley 💍 1893/2888	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer none	28 21	Fernside Rangiora	28 years Residence 2 years		93/2966		29 July 1893	P R Monro
788	3 August 1893	Joseph Baird Annie Croft	Joseph Baird Annie Croft 💍 1893/2547	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer none	26 24	Ashley Ashley	4 years 24 years	Presbyterian Church, Ashley	93/2635		3 August 1893	Richard Zout
789	16 August 1893	Charles Robert Luckal Malcolm Livinia Pinkler	Charles Robert McRae Malcolm Livinia Tinkler 💍 1893/2545	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer home	24 20	Southbrook Woodend	11 months 8 months	Registrar's Office, Rangiora	93/2633	Walker Charles, father	2 September 1893	G F Kirby, Registrar
790	23 August 1893	Henry Ferdinand Eder Sarah Ann Francis	Henry Ferdinand Eder Sarah Ann Francis 💍 1893/3866	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer none	26 23	Woodend Kaiapoi	26 years 4 years	Church of England	93/2630		23 August 1893	H R Walkinshaw

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).