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 1359

District of Napier 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
93	13 October 1893	Thomas Smilling Ellen Mary Macdonald	Thomas Snelling Ellen Mary Macdonald 💍 1893/3140	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	29 26	Nowhanzo Kuripapanga	12 years 10 years	Residence of Bride's Father at Kuripapanga	93/3230		13 October 1893	W. A. P. Clark, Church of England
94	18 October 1893	George Harkus Wootton Emily Charlotte Burgess	George Harkus Wootton Emily Charlotte Burgess 💍 1893/3802	Widower Spinster	Plumber Cook	53 31	Napier Napier	20 years 6 years	Presbyterian Manse Napier	93/4066		18 October 1893	J. G. Paterson, Presbyterian Church
95	19 October 1893	Dugald McNaughton Anne Gribble Stokes	Dugald McNaughten Anne Gribble Stokes 💍 1893/4083	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	53 40	Takapau Takapau	11 years 5 days 10 years 5 days	Office of the Registrar of Marriages Napier	93/3221		19 October 1893	S. J. Jago, Registrar
96	20 October 1893	Richard Gooch Grace Agnes Forster	Richard Gooch Grace Agnes Forster 💍 1893/3141	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant Merchant	26 20	Napier Napier	2 years 3 1/2 years	The Cathedral Napier	93/3231	Arthur Sandys Brooke Forster, Father	20 October 1893	Rev. De Berdt Hovell, Church of England
97	23 October 1893	Werner Thomas Taylor Annie Shaw	Werner Thomas Taylor Annie Shaw 💍 1893/4084	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Servant Domestic	30 23	Napier Napier	2 1/2 years 2 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages Napier	93/3222		23 October 1893	S. J. Jago, Registrar
98	23 October 1893	James Marshall Le Quesne Elizabeth Gunson	James Marshall Le Quesne Elizabeth Gunson 💍 1893/3803	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Governess	27 32	Napier Napier	27 years 3 years	Presbyterian Church Napier	93/4069		23 October 1893	Rev. J. G. Paterson, Presbyterian Church
99	25 October 1893	Robert Le Quesne Mary Jane Cowan	Robert Le Quesne Mary Jane Cowan 💍 1893/3804	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber Plumber	24 21	Napier Napier	24 years 5 years	Residence of Bridegroom's Mother Napier	93/4068		25 October 1893	Rev. J. G. Paterson, Presbyterian Church
100	2 November 1893	Patrick Collins Coghlan Margaret Eliza Keef	Patrick Collins Coghlan Margaret Eliza Keef 💍 1893/4085	Widower Widow	Farmer Farmer	42 42	Napier Napier	1 Week 3 Weeks	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages Napier	93/3223		2 November 1893	Registrar S. J. Jago

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).