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 1102

District of Timaru 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
36	8 July 1893	Philip de Guichy Payn Annie Eleanor Young	Philip De Gruchy Payn Annie Eleanor Young 💍 1893/2533	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	37 30	Pleasant Point Pleasant Point	4 days 5 months	Registrar's office Timaru	93/2643	8 July 1893	Thomas Hawley Registrar of Marriages. Timaru.
37	1 July 1893	Sydney William Powlesland Sarah Elizabeth Hope	Sydney William Powlesland Sarah Elizabeth Hope 💍 1893/2844	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker Dressmaker	29 25	Arowhenua Arowhenua	7 days 14 days	Residence of Mr. James Swaney Arowhenua	93/2894	1 July 1893	Rev. John Dellow. Wesleyan Minister.
38	28 July 1893	George Barkentin Bullock Mary Clare Turnbull	George Barkentin Bullock Amy Clare Turnbull 💍 1893/2537	Widower Spinster	Shipping agent	30 21	Timaru Timaru	6 years 14 years	St Mary's Episcopalian Church Timaru	93/2646	28 July 1893	Rev. Archdeacon Henry William Harper Church of England Minister
39	10 August 1893	James Wilson Isabella McKenzie	James Wilson Isabella McKenzie 💍 1893/2540	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	23 22	Timaru Kensington	6 years 14 years	Residence of Mr. Donald McKenzie Kensington.	93/2650	10 August 1893	Rev. Frederick W. Boys. Primitive Methodist Minister.
40	16 August 1893	Herbert Nichols. Mary Eliza Byrne	Herbert Nichols Mary Eliza Byrne 💍 1893/2539	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	29 27	Timaru Timaru	3 days 14 days	Roman Catholic Presbytery Timaru	93/2648	16 August 1893	Rev. Louis Hurlie. Roman Catholic Clergyman.
41	2 September 1893	James Keane Ellen Radove	James Keane Ellen Redove 💍 1893/745	Widower Widow	Farmer Farmer	56 49	Pleasant Point Timaru	23 years 3 months	Roman Catholic Chapel. Timaru	93/2649	2 September 1893	Rev. John Sullivan. Roman Catholic Clergyman.
42	7 September 1893	Samuel James Wilson Agnes Webster	Samuel James Wilson Agnes Webbster 💍 1893/2608	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 22	Timaru Timaru	25 years 10 years	Residence of Mr. Matthew Smale , Timaru	93/2657	7 September 1893	Rev. Frederick W. Boys. Primitive Methodist Minister
43	11 September 1893	John Frederick Medicott Margaret Elliott	John Frederick Medlicott Margaret Elliott 💍 1893/2619	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 28	Opihi Sutherlands.	12 years 8 years	Residence of Mr. John Elliott. Sutherlands.	93/2633	11 September 1893	Rev. William White. Presbyterian Minister.
44	11 September 1893	John Zealand Hill Margaret Ellen Smith	John Zealand Hill Margaret Allen Smith 💍 1893/2538 John Egerton Ward Barbara Ellen Smith 💍 1893/2186	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer's assistant	33 24	Timaru Timaru	26 years 24 years.	St Mary's Episcopalian Church Timaru.	93/2647	11 September 1893	Rev. Archdeacon Henry W Harper Church of England Clergyman.
45	18 September 1893	Edward Hoskin Lucy McKenzie	Edward Hoskin Lucy McKenzie 💍 1893/3867	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 24	Timaru Timaru	6 months 5 years	Residence of Mr. Matthew Smale, Timaru	93/2652	18 September 1893	Rev. Frederick W. Boys. Primitive Methodist Minister

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).