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 1357

District of Hastings 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
284	5 October 1893	Samuel Massey Fannie Edith Schow	Samuel Massey Fannie Edith Schon 💍 1893/3939	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	36 29	Whana Hawkes Bay Hastings	10 years 3 years	Residence of S. Nesbitt	93/3216		5 October 1893	Rev. R. Fraser
285	25 October 1893	Joseph Waller Trigg Emily Hesp	Joseph Walter Wigg Emily Hesp 💍 1893/3118	Bachelor Spinster		33 21	Hastings Hastings	1 year 3 weeks	Registrars Office	93/3219		25 October 1893	The Registrar
286	30 October 1893	Alexander Clarence Lean Leonora Louisa Lepping	Alexander Clarus Lean Leonora Louisa Tipping 💍 1893/3111	Bachelor Spinster	Auctioneer	35 20	Hastings Hastings	4 years 3 years	St. Matthews, Church Hastings	93/3211	J. C. Lepping, father	30 October 1893	Rev. John Hobbs
287	13 November 1893	John Hobbs Catherine Edwards	John Hobbs Katherine Edwards 💍 1893/3112 John Robinson Gwen Edwards 💍 1893/463	Widower Spinster	Clergyman	42 47	Hastings Hastings	3 years 5 years	St. Matthews, Church Hastings	93/3212		15 November 1893	Rev. Canon St. Hill
288	20 November 1893	Francis Ernest Nelson Winifred Betham Williams	Francis Ernest Nelson Winifred Beetham Williams 💍 1893/3114	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 21	Tomoana Hastings	2 years 21 years	St. Matthews, Church Hastings	93/3214		20 October 1893	Ven. Archdeacon Williams
289	20 November 1893	Arthur Leonard May Ellen Chapman	Arthur Leonard May Ellen Chapman 💍 1893/3113	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	35 22	Tomoana Hastings Hastings	10 years 22 years	St. Matthews, Church Hastings	93/3213		20 October 1893	Rev. John Hobbs
290	24 November 1893	John McHardy Ellen Long	John McHardy Ellen Long 💍 1893/3502	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	32 28	Clive Clive	2 years 1 year	Roman Catholic Church, Clive	93/3911		24 November 1893	Rev. Father Smythe
291	12 December 1893	Thomas Brown Elizabeth Jane Haley	Thomas Brown Elizabeth Jane Haley 💍 1893/3117	Bachelor Spinster	Cab driver	22 21	Hastings Hastings	4 years 3 days	Wesleyan Church, Hastings	93/3218		12 December 1893	Rev. W. Elliott

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).