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 1493

District of Christchurch 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
359	1 November 1893	George William Whitehead Rose Anne Elizabeth Mary Dream	George William Whitehead Rose Ann Elizabeth May 💍 1893/708	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor Dressmaker	26 22	Christchurch Christchurch	26 years 8 years	House of Rev F. W. Isitt, East Belt, Christchurch	93/3521		1 November 1893	Rev F. W. Isitt, Wesleyan
360	1 November 1893	Frederick Meyer The writing is difficult even for human recognition. The Family is known by me. {BEP} Matta Maria Arnst The writing is difficult even for human recognition. The Family is known by me. {BEP}	Frederick Meyer Matta Maria Arnst 💍 1893/3215	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 19	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 19 years	German Church, Worcester St, Christchurch	93/3548	Hermann Arnst, Father	1 November 1893	Rev J. A. Mayer, Church of England
361	2 November 1893	William Howley Mary Gray	William Howley Mary Guy 💍 1893/3286	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	30 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 21 years	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	93/3588		2 November 1893	Registrar, J. W. Rolleston
362	2 November 1893	Henry Thomas Walker Kezia Anderson	Henry Shaw Kezia Anderson 💍 1893/3523	Bachelor Spinster	Harness Maker Dressmaker	29 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Manchester St, Christchurch	93/3640		2 November 1893	Rev M. Marnane, Roman Catholic
363	2 November 1893	William Murray Turnbull Gertrude Anne Turnbull	William Murray Gertrude Ann Turnbull 💍 1893/679	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Dressmaker	26 30	Christchurch Christchurch	26 years 30 years	House of Mrs. Turnbull, Hazeldean Road, Christchurch	93/3566		2 November 1893	Rev G. Webster, Presbyterian
364	3 November 1893	Edmund Manson Blake Lizzie Small	Edmund Marrison Blake Lizzie Small 💍 1893/3301	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 23	Christchurch Christchurch	26 years 23 years	Prebbleton, Episcopal Church	93/3580		3 November 1893	Rev W. T. Knowles, Church of England
365	3 November 1893	William Mary Boulker Elizabeth Jones	William Merry Barker Elizabeth Jones 💍 1893/683	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	24 years 20 years	All Saints Church, Christchurch	93/3570		3 November 1893	Rev F. R. Inwood, 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).