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 1247

District of Auckland 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
506	28 December 1893	John William Fitzpatrick Julia Gleeson	John William Fitzpatrick Julia Gleeson 💍 1894/67	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	27 22	Thames Thames	5 yrs 22 [illegible] Auckland	St Benedicts Church	94/64	28 December 1893	Rev. J. C. Bowden, Roman Cath.
507	28 December 1893	John Hearefield Edith Elizabeth Jane Moody	John Masefield Edith Elizabeth Jane Moody 💍 1894/112	Bachelor Spinster	Preserved	27 25	Russell Mt Eden	4 yrs 2 wks Auckland	St Pauls Church	94/111	28 December 1893	Rev. C. H. Nelson, Church of Eng.
508	28 December 1893	James Quickfall Eva Sanders	James Quickfall Eva Sanders 💍 1894/246	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	32 24	New Plymouth Parnell	6 wks 24 yrs Parnell	St Marys Church	94/33	28 December 1893	Rev. G. MacMurray, Church of Eng.
509	28 December 1893	Llewellyn James Pegler Harriet Siplady	Llewellyn James Pegler Harriet Tiplady 💍 1893/3069	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	27 27	Mt Eden Mt Eden	12 yrs 2 [illegible] Mt Eden	House of Rev. A. Siplady	93/3034	28 December 1893	Rev. B. L. Shand, Congl. Indep.
510	28 December 1893	Alfred Sily Hookey Fanny Kate Spencer	Alfred Tily Hookey Fanny Kate Spencer 💍 1894/131	Bachelor Spinster	Comml. Traveller	32 28	Auckland England	8 yrs 28 [illegible] Mt Eden Rd	House of Rev. J. W. Hinton	94/6	28 December 1893	Rev. B. L. Shand, Congl. Indep.
511	28 December 1893	Harold Cotterill Brookfield Anna Catherine Dickey	Harold Cotterill Brookfield Anna Catherine Dickey 💍 1894/307	Bachelor Spinster	Dentist	26 31	Wanganui Grangers	4 yrs 20 yrs Grangers	Church of England	94/99	28 December 1893	Rev. T. E. Mulgan, Church of Eng.
512	29 December 1893	William Edward Hirst Kathleen Gore Crawford	William Edward Hirst Kathleen Gore Crawford 💍 1894/310	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 21	Drury Ponsonby	10 yrs 15 [illegible] Jervois Road Ponsonby	House of Rev. E. Crawford	94/179	29 December 1893	Rev. C. H. Laws, Wesleyan

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).