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 1597

District of Invercargill 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
82	2 October 1893	Gilbert Broughton Agnes Peattie	Gilbert Broughton Williams Agnes Peattie 💍 1893/4113	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	38 23	Invercargill Invercargill	8 months 4 months	Office of the Registrar	93/3794		2 October 1893	J. W. Wilkie, Registrar
83	4 October 1893	George Grindlay Margaret Watson	George Grindlay Margaret Watson 💍 1893/3490	Bachelor Spinster	Factory Hand	27 25	Invercargill Invercargill	18 years 10 years	House of Rev. John Ferguson, Crinley St.	93/3763		4 October 1893	Rev. John Ferguson
84	9 October 1893	Charles Frank Lawrence Jane Somerville	Charles Frank Lawrence Jane Somerville 💍 1893/4112	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	20 21	Invercargill Invercargill	5 years 3 weeks	House of G. H. Lawrence, Seaward Bush	93/3760	G. H. Lawrence, Father	9 October 1893	Rev. Joseph Sharp
85	10 October 1893	George Hay Ellen Jane Gearshall	George Hay Helen Jane Marshall 💍 1893/3489	Widower Spinster	Farmer	48 18	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 1 week	House of Rev. John Ferguson	93/3762	Robt. Gearshall, Father	10 October 1893	Rev. John Ferguson
86	12 October 1893	James Allan McRitchie Mary Smith	James Allan McMillan Mary Smith 💍 1893/3386	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	23 30	South Invercargill South Invercargill	6 months 3 days	Office of the Registrar	93/3795		12 October 1893	J. W. Wilkie, Registrar
87	13 October 1893	Arthur Steans Blanche Louisa Barham	Arthur Steans Blanche Louisa Barham 💍 1893/3483	Bachelor Spinster	Hair Dresser	26 23	Invercargill Invercargill	5 years 23 years	House of Rev. R. Taylor, Leet St.	93/3779		13 October 1893	Rev. R. Taylor
88	16 October 1893	George Broomhall Sophia Elizabeth William	George Broomkell Sophia Elizabeth Williams 💍 1893/4130	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	23 33	Invercargill Invercargill	10 months 33 years	Church of England, Tay St.	93/3776		16 October 1893	Ven. Archdeacon Stocker

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).