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 1355

District of Dannevirke 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
51	16 October 1893	William Alding Mary Carmichael	William Alding Mary Carmichael 💍 1893/3123	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 21	Dannevirke Dannevirke	5 years 4 years	Church of England, Dannevirke			16 October 1893	Rev E Robertshawe, Charge
52	30 October 1893	William Alding Mary Carmichael	William Alding Mary Carmichael 💍 1893/3123	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 21	Dannevirke Dannevirke	5 years 4 years	Registrar's Office, Dannevirke	93/3205		30 October 1893	William James Walsh
53	13 November 1893	Malcolm Clark Elizabeth Lapraik	Malcolm Clark Elizabeth Lapraik 💍 1893/3125	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 26	Maharahara Kaitoki	4 years 1 week	T. Phipps' House, Kaitoki	93/3207		13 November 1893	Rev E Robertshawe, Ch of England
54	2 December 1893	Carl Emiel Enersen Ane Marie Elizabeth Jensen	Carl Emil Enerson Ane Marie Elizabeth Jensen 💍 1893/3126	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinetmaker	27 19	Dannevirke Dannevirke	2 years 15 years	Church of England	93/3208	Hans Peter Jensen	2 December 1893	Rev E Robertshawe, Ch of England
55	8 December 1893	Edwin Manfield Baker Lucy Magdalene Unwin	Edwin Manfield Baker Lucy Magdalen Unwin 💍 1893/3127	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinetmaker	25 21	Dannevirke Dannevirke	6 weeks 3 days	Church of England	93/3209		8 December 1893	Rev E Robertshawe, Ch of England
56	11 December 1893	Charles Thomas Gray Emily Osborne	Charles Thomas Gray Emily Osborne 💍 1893/3124	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 23	Maharahara Maharahara	5 months 5 months	Registrar's Office, Dannevirke	93/3206		11 December 1893	William James Walsh
57	18 December 1893	Emil Frederick Weisert Hilda Fredeberg	Emil Frederick Weisert Hilda Fredsberg 💍 1893/3132	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmill Manager	29 21	Mangatera Mangatera	1 year 4 weeks	R. Angell's House, Mangatera	93/3239		18 December 1893	Rev H. M. Ries - Lutheran
58	27 December 1893	Frederick Gilmour Catherine Cammack	Frederick Gilmour Catherine Cammock 💍 1893/3110	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	20 18	Ormondville Maharahara	14 years 4 years	Church of England	93/3210	Ann Gilmour, Alexander Cammack	27 December 1893	Rev E Robertshawe, Ch 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).