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 1571

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
330	14 December 1893	Albert Ernest Chocque Selina Jane Le Brun	Albert Ernest Gascoigne Selina Jane Le Brun 💍 1893/3668	Bachelor Spinster	Law-clerk	26 years 20 years	Dunedin Dunedin	12 years 23 years	In St. Pauls Church	93/3670		14 December 1893	Ven Archdeacon Edwards, Church of England Minister
331	15 December 1893	George Robertson Augusta Austin	George Robertson Augusta Austin 💍 1893/4124	Widower Spinster	Painter	36 years 34 years	Maori Hill Maori Hill	5 years 1 year	In the house of Revd William Saunders	93/3725		15 December 1893	Revd W. Saunders, Congregational Minister
332	15 December 1893	William John Steele Emily Augusta Gough	William John Steele Emily Augusta Gough 💍 1893/3566	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	22 years 23 years	North East Valley Dunedin	10 years 23 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages	93/3734		15 December 1893	W. J. Hall, Registrar of Marriages
333	15 December 1893	Joseph Mercer Agnes Tyson	Joseph Mercer Agnes Tyson 💍 1893/3448	Bachelor Spinster	Cellarman	28 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	24 years 20 years	In the house of Joseph Mercer, Forth Street	93/3702		15 December 1893	Revd A. P. Davidson, Presbyterian Minister
334	15 December 1893	Robert William Davies Catherine Millar Meikle	Robert William Davies Catharine Millar Meikle 💍 1893/3436	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	26 years 26 years	Mornington Dunedin	1 year 24 years	In the house of Robert Meikle, Russell Street	93/3689		15 December 1893	Revd Dr Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
335	16 December 1893	Frederick Richard Brooks Adelaide Hunter	Frederick Richard Brooks Adelaide Hunter 💍 1893/4094	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	30 years 23 years	St. Kilda South Dunedin	1 year 4 years	In the house of Samuel Hunter	93/3661		16 December 1893	Revd A. Cameron, Presbyterian Minister
336	16 December 1893	Lachlan Paterson Fraser Caroline Waymouth Clayton	Lachlan Paterson Fraser Caroline Waymonth Clayton 💍 1893/3615	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Accountant	37 years 19 years	Dunedin Dunedin	8 years 19 years	In St. Andrews Church	93/3987	James Henry Clayton, father of minor	16 December 1893	Revd R. Waddell, Presbyterian 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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).