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 1566

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
296	11 November 1893	David Adams Eleanor Elizabeth Prescott	David Adams Eleanor Elizabeth Prescott 💍 1893/3663	Widower Widow	Salesman	42 years 34 years	Caversham Dunedin	3 months 7 years	In the house of William Ready	93/3664	11 November 1893	Revd W Ready, Bible Christian minister
297	13 November 1893	Frans Leonard Peterson Rebecca Buchanan	Frans Leonard Peterson Rebecca Buchanan 💍 1893/3459	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	26 years 22 years	Dunedin South Dunedin	3 years 2 years	In the house of William Buchanan	93/3723	13 November 1893	Revd J F Floyd, Minister Church of Christ
298	15 November 1893	Charles Abernethy Mary Ann Abrim	Charles Abernettry Mary Ann Abuir 💍 1893/3237	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	24 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	5 years 6 years	Samuel John Abrim, Harbour Terrace	93/3704	15 November 1893	Revd H E Wallace, Congregational Minister
299	15 November 1893	John Christie Margaret Ellen Spinks	John Christie Margaret Allen 💍 1893/3592	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	25 years 28 years	Dunedin Caversham	3 days 3 months	In the house of Robert Allen	93/3883	15 November 1893	Revd D Dutton, Presbyterian Minister
300	17 November 1893	Walter Benjamin Gough Theresa Grace Anderton	Walter Benjamin Gough Thersa Grace Anderton 💍 1893/3238	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 years 27 years	South Dunedin South Dunedin	14 days 3 days	In the Salvation Army Barracks	93/3705	17 November 1893	Major Charles Robinson, Salvation Army
301	17 November 1893	George Rolland Irvine Secunda Maxwell	George Belland Irvine Secunda Maxwell 💍 1893/3454	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	29 years 33 years	Leith Valley Leith Valley	3 years 3 years	In Knox Church	93/3686	17 November 1893	Revd R Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
302	20 November 1893	Oscar Davis Flamank Alice Maud Morton	Oscar Davis Flamank Alice Maud Morton 💍 1893/3755	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	25 years 22 years	Roslyn Roslyn	3 days 3 months	In the house of Matthew Morton	93/4093	20 November 1893	Revd J A Hill, Presbyterian Minister of Maiarekia

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).