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 1627

District of Riverton 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
380	2 October 1893	Willy Rein Robert Elizabeth Wood	William Robert Rein Elizabeth Wood 💍 1893/3783	bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 18	Riverton Riverton	6 days 18 years	Wesleyan Church, Riverton	93/4045	Henry Beauchamp Wood, Father of Elizabeth Wood	2 October 1893	Revd J. W. Newboch (Wesleyan)
381	3 October 1893	John Albert Kwees Alice Elizabeth Paulin Stuck	John Albert Livesey Alice Elizabeth Ann Paulin Stuck 💍 1893/3778	bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 26	Otaitai Bush Otaitai Bush	8 years 26 years	House of Jas. R. Stuck, Otaitai Bush, near Riverton	93/4042		3 October 1893	Revd J. W. Newboch (Wesleyan)
382	30 October 1893	James Hood Christiana Emily Parton	James Hood Christina Emily Patton 💍 1893/3779	bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	24 28	Riverton Riverton	24 years 28 years	House of Mr. W. Thomas, South Riverton	93/4043		30 October 1893	Revd J. W. Newboch (Wesleyan)
383	14 November 1893	Wm Peter Crow Barbara Smith	William Peter Crow Barbara Smith 💍 1893/3780	bachelor Spinster	Farmer	49 17	Pahi, Dalmore Pahi, Dalmore	15 years 2 years	Wesleyan	93/4044	Jane Burgess, Mother of Bride	14 November 1893	Revd J. W. Newboch (Wesleyan)
384	25 November 1893	Thomas Jas. Walker Charlotte Agnes Walker	Thomas James Walker Charlotte Agnes Walker 💍 1893/3781	bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 24	Otautau Otautau	21 years 24 years	House of Mr. W. Walker, near Otautau	93/4046		25 November 1893	Revd J. W. Newboch (Wesleyan)
385	8 December 1893	Henry Ward Annie Elizabeth Grey	Henry Ward Annie Elizabeth Gray 💍 1893/3687	bachelor Spinster	farmer	34 31	Orepuki Orepuki	6 months 4 years	Railway Hotel, Riverton	93/3831		8 December 1893	Revd I. Neave (Presbyterian)
386	11 December 1893	Henry Wyatt Maria Skeggs	Henry Wyatt Maria Skeggs 💍 1894/875	Widower Widow	Laborer	56 54	Riverton Riverton	22 years 16 years	House of Mr. Maria Skeggs, South Riverton	94/1953		11 December 1893	Revd G. W. Christian, Church of England
387	15 December 1893	John Frederick Noble Margaret Jamieson	John Frederick Noble Margaret Cameron 💍 1893/747	bachelor Spinster	farmer Dressmaker	27 21	Otautau Otautau	9 years 2 years	House of Mr. Monack, Otautau	93/3832		15 December 1893	Revd J. Macdonald (Presbyterian)
388	16 December 1893	Elisha Harrington Mary Catherine Trail	Elisha Harrington Mary Catherine Trail 💍 1893/3686	bachelor Spinster	Saw Miller	25 21	Fairfax Riverton	18 months 21 years	House of Mr. Trail, South Riverton	93/3830		16 December 1893	Revd J. A. Foxton (Wesleyan)

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).