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 1133

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
226	23 August 1893	John Killiam Charles Vickers Rachel Rimmo Roy	John William Charles Dicker Rachel Nimmo Roy 💍 1893/2635	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	26 years 27 years	Maori Hill Maori Hill	3 days 27 years	In the house of David Roy	93/2689	23 August 1893	Revd A. North, Baptist Minister
227	24 August 1893	Thomas Thompson Laura White	Thomas Thompson Laura White 💍 1893/2669	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	42 years 27 years	Caversham Dunedin	8 months 27 years	In Knox Church	93/2709	24 August 1893	Revd Dr Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
228	28 August 1893	Robert Crawshaw Catherine Harriet Webb Harriet Bird	Robert Crawshaw Proctor Catherine Harriet Webb Bird 💍 1893/2694	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	25 years 22 years	Dunedin South Dunedin	5 years 6 weeks	In St Pauls Church	93/2725	28 August 1893	Ven Archdeacon Edwards, Church of England Minister
229	28 August 1893	William Robert Harrington Mary Boatwood	William Robert Warrington Mary Boatwood 💍 1893/704	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	23 years 21 years	Mornington Mornington	21 years 18 years	In the house of John Boatwood	93/2711	28 August 1893	Revd Dr Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
230	28 August 1893	Henry Cormerang Wakelin Stephennar Winter	Henry Coomerang Wakelin Stephenar Winter 💍 1893/2670	Bachelor Widow	Carter	25 years 23 years	Roslyn Dunedin	12 years 2 years	In Knox Church	93/2710	28 August 1893	Revd Dr Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
231	29 August 1893	John Hampden Erskine Catherine Sutherland	John Hampden Erskine Catherine Kate Sutherland 💍 1893/2711	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	29 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In Chalmers Church	93/2727	29 August 1893	Revd J. M. Fraser, Presbyterian Minister
232	30 August 1893	Walter Hill Stewart Mary May Gaune	Walter Hill Stewart Mary May Gawne 💍 1893/3828	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter	22 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 7 years	Cathedral	93/4102	30 August 1893	Revd P. P. Lynch, Roman Catholic Priest

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).