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 1389

District of 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
393	3 October 1893	William Thomas Davies Mary Letitia Black	William Thomas Dawick Mary Letitia Black 💍 1893/4077	Bachelor Spinster	Boarding Housekeeper Domestic	30 24	Palmerston North Feilding	3 days 7 days	Residence of Black, Feilding	93/3268		3 October 1893	H. M. Murray
394	5 October 1893	John Henry Oscar Bolby Elizabeth Bartholomew	John Henry Oscar Colby Elizabeth Bartholomew 💍 1893/4078	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 24	Colyton Feilding	3 months 15 years	Residence of Mrs Bartholomew, Feilding	93/3269		5 October 1893	H. M. Murray
395	16 October 1893	Christopher Nicholson Antonia Bellve	Christopher Nicholson Antonia Bellve 💍 1893/3221	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	28 29	Eketahuna Feilding	3 days 12 years	Anglican Church	93/3262		16 October 1893	A. S. Innes Jones
396	23 October 1893	Ernest Robert Oscar Bomgue Wahle Louisa Palmer	Ernest Robert Oscar Bonigue Wahle Louisa Palmer 💍 1893/3220	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	23 20	Waituna West Waituna West	1 1/2 years 19 years	Registrar's Office	93/3260	James Palmer, father	23 October 1893
397	3 November 1893	Anthony Francis Fitzherbert Catherine Annie Bull	Anthony Francis Fitzherbert Catherine Annie Bull 💍 1893/3222	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 26	Pakihikura Aorangi	3 years 12 years	Anglican Church	93/3263		3 November 1893	A. S. Innes Jones
398	9 December 1893	William Bellve Edith Parr	William Bellve Edith Parr 💍 1893/3223	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	24 24	Feilding Feilding	14 years 8 years	Anglican Church	93/3264		9 December 1893	A. S. Innes Jones
399	14 December 1893	Ernie Robert Hubner Jane Brown	Emil Robert Hubner Jane Brown 💍 1894/415	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic	27 26	Makino Feilding	19 years 14 years	Residence of Robert Brown, Feilding	94/324		14 December 1893	George Clement
400	19 December 1893	Henry Walter Knowles Mary Louisa Retemeyer	Henry Walter Knowles Mary Louisa Retemeyer 💍 1893/3224	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 22	Feilding Feilding	3 years 7 years	Anglican Church	93/3265		19 December 1893	A. S. Innes Jones
401	19 December 1893	Frederick Walter Newell Helen McAlister	Frederick Walter Newell Helen McAlister 💍 1893/3621	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 21	Kuriatea Feilding	20 years	Residence of McAlister, Feilding	93/3995		19 December 1893	H. M. Murray
402	23 December 1893	George Richard Howse Ellen Mary Baker	George Richard Howell Mary Ellen Baker 💍 1893/3226	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 20	Waituna West Makino	5 years 10 years	Residence of R. Wood, Feilding	93/3267		23 December 1893	George Clement

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).