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 1245

District of Quarter ending 31 December 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
492	21 December 1893	Henry James Care Mary Eliza Littledale	Henry James Cave Mary Eliza Littledale 💍 1893/3076	Bachelor Spinster	Mill Hand	24 19	Edw Gerrace Orchinga	39 months 19 years	House of Mrs. H. Littledale	93/3040	Mother Littledale	21 December 1893	Rev. W. S. Churchill, Church of England
493	21 December 1893	Ebenezer Clarke Catherine Mary De Jerry	Ebeneezer Clarke Catherine Mary De Ferry 💍 1893/2978	Widower Spinster	Carpenter	39 31	Arch Hill Arch Hill	1 year 1 month	House of E. C. Clarke	93/3004		21 December 1893	Rev. J. Gray, Primitive Methodist
494	21 December 1893	Thomas Henry Hillsted Mary Elizabeth Harding	Thomas Henry Wellsted Mary Elizabeth Zita Harding 💍 1893/698	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	28 24	Auckland Auckland	4 years 24 months	St. Benedict Church	93/3974		21 December 1893	Rev. J. C. Downey, Roman Catholic
495	22 December 1893	Harold Crispe Snellsop Clementine Emily Margaret Harrison	Harold Crispe Mellsop Clementine Emily Margaret Harrison 💍 1893/2998	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	29 36	Parnell Mangamui	14 months 3 years	Bishopscourt	93/3055		22 December 1893	Right Rev. W. G. Cowie, Church of England
496	22 December 1893	William Frederick Dempsey Catherine Annie O'Hara	William Fredrick Dempsey Catherine Anne O'Hara 💍 1893/3709	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	32 23	Ponsonby Auckland	16 years 23 months	St. Patrick's Cathedral	93/3959		22 December 1893	Rev. J. Hackett, Roman Catholic
497	27 December 1893	Kenneth E. Hulay Jessie Margaret McRae	Kenneth McAulay Jessie Margaret McRae 💍 1893/3062	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	36 23	Waipua Whangarei	32 years 23 months	House of Mrs. J. Muller	93/3027		27 December 1893	Rev. R. S. Hassard, Presbyterian
498	27 December 1893	John Edward Galbraith Ellen Leslie Ferguson	John Edward Galbraith Ellen Leslie Ferguson 💍 1893/3063	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	33 23	Lyttelton Newton	30 years 6 months	House of J. H. Ireland	93/3028		27 December 1893	Rev. R. S. Hassard, Presbyterian

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).