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 1537

District of Timaru 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
48	2 October 1893	Frederick William Tasker Ellen Augustus Scarf	Frederick William Tasker Ellen Augustus Scarf 💍 1893/3653	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	21 years 22 years	Timaru Timaru	4 years 22 years	Residence of Mr. John Tummy, Timaru	93/3946		2 October 1893	Rev. Charles E. Beecroft, Wesleyan Minister
49	21 October 1893	Chester Curtis Mary Hannah Jones	Chester Curtis Mary Hannah Janes 💍 1893/3360	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer General Servant	22 years 21 years	Albury Timaru	14 years 3 days	Registrars office, Timaru	93/3625		21 October 1893	Thomas Hawley, Registrar of Marriages, Timaru
50	25 October 1893	Archibald Irvine Edith June Adams	Archibald Irwin Edith Jane Adams 💍 1893/3363	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	24 years 20 years	Timaru Timaru	24 years 14 years	Residence of Mr. Archibald Irvine, Timaru	93/3627	Samuel Adams - Father -	25 October 1893	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
51	25 October 1893	Charles Cleudon Empson Adaline Mary Young	Charles Clendon Empson Adeline Mary Young 💍 1893/3538	Bachelor Spinster	Stock Inspector	38 years 30 years	Timaru Timaru	3 days 2 years	St. Marys Episcopalian Church, Timaru	93/3631		25 October 1893	Rev. Archdeacon Henry William Harper, Church of England Minister
52	26 October 1893	David Ennis Caroline Selina Tator	David Ennis Caroline Selina Tatam 💍 1893/3361	Bachelor Spinster	Hammer	44 years 22 years	Timaru Timaru	11 years 12 months	Registrars office, Timaru	93/3626		26 October 1893	Thomas Hawley, Registrar of Marriages, Timaru
53	1 November 1893	Robert Reid Kate Jenkins	Robert Reid Kate Jenkins 💍 1893/3519	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 years 25 years	Timaru Timaru	9 months 6 months	Residence of Mr. James Elliott, Timaru	93/3628		1 November 1893	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
54	1 November 1893	Levi Clough Betty Emlyn Williams	Levi Clough Hetty Emlyn Williams 💍 1893/3541	Bachelor Spinster	Shopman	28 years 21 years	Timaru Timaru	28 years 15 years	Primitive Methodist Church, Timaru	93/3634		1 November 1893	Rev. Frederick W. Boys, Primitive Methodist Minister
55	22 November 1893	Daniel Barrett Janet Irving	Daniel Barrett Janet Mary Irving 💍 1893/3537 William Scoular Fleming Janet Irving 💍 1894/931 James McFadyen Janet Irving 💍 1893/2693	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 years 26 years	Kerrytown Albury	2 months 11 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Timaru	93/3630		22 November 1893	Rev. John Tubman, Roman Catholic Clergyman
56	24 November 1893	Charles George Morgan Jessie Bennet	Charles George Morgan Jessie Bennet 💍 1893/3530	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	23 years 26 years	Timaru Timaru	22 years 26 years	Residence of Mr. Alexander Bennet, Timaru	93/3629		24 November 1893	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
57	4 December 1893	Charles Baker Sarah Raddle	Charles Baker Janet Ruddle 💍 1893/3705	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 years 21 years	Timaru Timaru	15 years 3 years	Residence of Mr. William Raddle, Timaru	93/3947		4 December 1893	Rev. Charles Crisp Brown, Baptist Minister

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).