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 1490

District of Christchurch 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
338	12 October 1893	William Bowden Eliza Ann Potter	William Bowden Stevens Eliza Ann Potter 💍 1893/3637	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Tailoress	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	16 years 15 years	House of Mr. Wm H. T. [illegible]	93/3931	12 October 1893	Rev. F. Y. Read, Bible Christian
339	14 October 1893	James Willis Elizabeth Emily Jane	James Willis Elizabeth Emily Lane 💍 1893/3914	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	44 31	Christchurch Christchurch	40 years 20 years	Durham Street Wesleyan Church	93/3532	14 October 1893	Rev. H. R. Dewsbury, Wesleyan
340	16 October 1893	Thomas William Rachel Brown	Thomas William Manchester Rachel Brown 💍 1893/3927	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	24 26	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 2 years	House of Mr. Bailey, Barbour Street, Linwood	93/3577	16 October 1893	Rev. F. W. Isitt, Wesleyan
341	16 October 1893	Thomas Henry Annie Killing	Thomas Henry Alexander Annie Skilling 💍 1893/3306 Thomas Hoban Annie Holloway 💍 1893/1503	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	28 21	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 4 days	Registrars Office, Christchurch	93/3585	16 October 1893	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Macfarlane
342	16 October 1893	Alfred James Chainey Lily Ada Swale	Alfred James Chainey Lily Ada Swale 💍 1893/3171	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	27 21	Christchurch Christchurch	27 years 21 years	House of Mrs. Swale, Avonside	93/3578	16 October 1893	Rev. F. W. Isitt, Wesleyan
343	16 October 1893	Augustus Ioley Martha Harrison	Augustus Soley Rees Martha Mary Harrison 💍 1893/3198	Bachelor Spinster	Custodian	23 23	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 23 years	House of Rev. J. Dawson, Oxford Terrace East	93/3532	16 October 1893	Rev. J. Dawson, Methodist
344	16 October 1893	George Williams Susannah Mumming	George Wilcockson Susannah Beeken 💍 1893/756	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	28 25	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 25 years	Wesleyan Church, Durham Street	93/3534	16 October 1893	Rev. H. R. Dewsbury, 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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).