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 1513

District of Geraldine 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
432	23 October 1893	Athole Ferguson Barbara M. Heath	Athole Fergusson Barbara McCreath Patrick 💍 1893/3362	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	32 23	Woodbury Gapes' Valley	9 years 2 years	The House of Mr. William Patrick, Gapes' Valley	93/3604		23 October 1893	Rev. A. Bruce Todd, Presbyterian
433	26 October 1893	Tilhaus Thomas Susanna Morrison	William Thomas Susannah Morrison 💍 1893/3364	Bachelor Spinster	Journalist Milliner	23 26	Geraldine Geraldine	2 years 23 years	The House of Mr. Robert Morrison, Geraldine	93/3605		26 October 1893	Rev. A. Bruce Todd, Presbyterian
434	20 November 1893	William Stanley Bluett Annie Christina Smith	Francis Stanley Bluett Annie Christina Smith 💍 1893/3351	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 19	Arundel Arundel	4 days 6 months	Registrar's Office, Geraldine	93/3603	Alexander Smith, Father	20 November 1893	Mr. R. Andrew, Registrar
435	1 December 1893	Henry Herbert Beattie Mary Payne	Henry Herbert Heatley Mary Payne 💍 1893/4105	Bachelor Spinster	Carriage Builder	25 19	Orari Orari Station Road	3 years 12 years	The House of Mr. William Payne, Orari Station Road	93/3606	William Payne, Father	1 December 1893	Rev. Mr. G. Woodward, Primitive Methodist
436	28 December 1893	William Amos Sherratt Ellen Maria Stonehouse	William Amos Skerratt Ellen Maria Stonehouse 💍 1894/783	Bachelor Spinster	Timber Merchant	23 23	Geraldine Geraldine	5 years 20 years	Primitive Methodist Church, Geraldine	94/721		28 December 1893	Rev. Mr. G. Woodward, Primitive Methodist
437	29 December 1893	William Etheridge Rosetta Rowe	William Titheridge Rosetta Rowe 💍 1893/3365 William Strang Amelia Rowe 💍 1893/2187	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 19	Geraldine Road Geraldine	1 year 7 years	The House of Mr. James Etheridge, Belfield Orari	93/3607	John Rowe, Father	29 December 1893	Rev. Mr. G. Woodward, Primitive Methodist

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).