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 1570

District of Dunedin 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
323	11 December 1893	John McAlfine Alice McLean	John McAlpine Alice McLean 💍 1893/3443	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	24 years 28 years	South Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 9 months	In the house of John McAlfine, South Dunedin	93/3698		11 December 1893	Rev. A. P. Davidson, Presbyterian Minister
324	12 December 1893	Jonathan Emerson Fanny Hambleton	Jonathan Emerson Fanny Hambleton 💍 1893/3444	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	21 years 21 years	Caversham South Dunedin	13 years 21 years	In Knox Church	93/3699		12 December 1893	Rev. A. P. Davidson, Presbyterian Minister
325	12 December 1893	William Grant Jane Lynn	William Grant Jane Lynn 💍 1893/3476	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	46 years 31 years	Andersons Bay Andersons Bay	6 months 6 months	In the house of Thomas Lynn	93/3719		12 December 1893	Rev. W. Jones, Methodist Minister
326	12 December 1893	William Charles Snow Annie James	William Charles Snow Annie James 💍 1893/3741	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	32 years 18 years	West Taieri Green Island	20 years 17 years	In the house of William James, Green Island, West Taieri	93/4024	William James, father of Minor	12 December 1893	Rev. Dr. Watt, Presbyterian Minister
327	13 December 1893	Edwin Alexander Brown Maud Burton	Edwin Alexander Brown Maud Burton 💍 1893/3447	Bachelor Spinster	Fruiterer	25 years 25 years	Dunedin North East Valley	25 years 10 years	In the house of Mr. Elizabeth Brown, Dundas Street, Dunedin	93/3701		13 December 1893	Rev. A. P. Davidson, Presbyterian Minister
328	13 December 1893	William Edward Strain Jessie Elizabeth Springer	William Edward Strain Jessie Elizabeth Springer 💍 1893/3462	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	38 years 28 years	North East Valley North East Valley	38 years 12 years	In the house of George Springer, North East Valley	93/3727		13 December 1893	Rev. B. Barrie, Presbyterian Minister
329	13 December 1893	Stephen Samuel Aburn Bessie Davis	Stephen Samuel Aburn Bessie Davis 💍 1893/3470	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	13 months 21 years	In the Tabernacle, Great King Street	93/3713		13 December 1893	Rev. E. Lewis, Minister Church of Christ

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).