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 1311

District of Thames 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
38	12 October 1893	George Ellis Wiggins Margaret Morton	George Ellis Higgins Margaret Morton 💍 1893/3038	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Manager Dressmaker	40 21	Royal Hotel, Green St, Thames Soundes St, Thames	6 years	The Dwelling of Charles Morton, Soundes St, Thames	93/3142		12 October 1893	Revd David McNicoll, Wesleyan
39	16 October 1893	John Alfred Kennerley Hannah Cato	John Alfred Kennerley Hannah Cato 💍 1893/3056	Bachelor Spinster	Miner None	18 16	Mackay St, Thames Mackay St, Thames	8 years 16 years	The Dwelling of Mr Cato, Mackay St, Thames	93/3147	Henry Kennerley, father; Jean Cato, mother	16 October 1893	Revd John Olphert, Primitive Methodist
40	24 October 1893	Edward George Bestie Annie Paul	Edward George Bertie Annie Paul 💍 1893/3039	Bachelor Spinster	Miner French Polisher	21 19	Mackay St, Thames Pollen St, Thames	21 years 19 years	The Dwelling of Joseph Paul, Pollen St, Thames	93/3151	Joseph Paul, father	24 October 1893	Edmund Harvey Taylor, Church of Christ
41	31 October 1893	James Williams Agnes Thompson		Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer None	19 22	Soundes St, Block 27 Soundes St, Block 27	6 years 22 years	The Dwelling of Insolence Newman	Not issued	No person resident in the Colony having authority to give consent
42	4 November 1893	William Alexander Murray Crosbie Emma Elizabeth Thompson	William Alexander Murray Crosbie Emma Elizabeth Thompson 💍 1893/3732 William Thomas Burnip Elinor Elizabeth Thompson 💍 1893/587	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	22 23	Waikawau, Thames Tararu, Thames	22 years 23 years	The Dwelling of George Morrison, Rolleston St, Thames	93/4014		4 November 1893	Revd L. J. Neill, Presbyterian
43	16 November 1893	William Francis McWilliams Florence Rosini Payne	William Francis McWilliams Florence Rosina Payne 💍 1893/3058	Bachelor Spinster	Tobacconist None	31 18	Thames Thames	25 years 18 years	St George's Church, Mackay St, Thames	93/3149	Nathaniel Payne, father	18 November 1893	Revd T. O'Callaghan D.D., Church of England

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).