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 1430

District of Wellington 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
389	12 December 1893	William Smith Mary Ann Chatham	William Smith Mary Ann Mallowes 💍 1893/3329 William Smith Margaret Jane Donovan 💍 1893/2038	Bachelor Spinster	Brushmaker	23 22	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	St. Marks Church	93/3382		12 December 1893	Rev. R. Goffey
390	13 December 1893	George Perry Emma Augusta Mann	George Perry Emma Augusta Brown 💍 1893/3195	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 22	Wellington Wellington	3 days 4 years	House of Mr. Brom, Paramata	93/3406		13 December 1893	Pastor S. Mc Cullagh
391	13 December 1893	Frederick Edgar Martin Mary Frances McKain	Frederick Edgar Martin Mary Francis McKain 💍 1893/3324	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	22 23	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Wesleyan Church, Kent Terrace	93/3377		13 December 1893	Rev. W. H. Beck
392	13 December 1893	Reuben King Emily White	Reuben King Emily White 💍 1894/455	Widower Widow	Farmer	61 33	Taita Upper Hutt	4 years 4 years	House of Bridegroom, Taita	94/466		13 December 1893	Rev. Andrew Gray
393	13 December 1893	Edwin Sherbourne Love Maria Ann Smith	Edwin Montague Maney Maria Ann South 💍 1893/652	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	26 22	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Registrars office, Wellington	93/3430		13 December 1893	Mr. M. L. Wyall
394	13 December 1893	Daniel Grinton Cathleen Harper	David Grinton Cathleen Harper 💍 1893/653	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	24 22	Wellington Wellington	4 months 4 years	Registrars office, Wellington	93/3431		13 December 1893	Mr. M. L. Wyall
395	15 December 1893	Archibald Lean Caroline Pope	Archibald McLean Caroline Pope 💍 1893/3882	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 21	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	House of Mr. Cuff, Adelaide Road	93/3405		15 December 1893	Rev. J. K. Elliott
396	15 December 1893	Henry Meyer Clarissa Annie Tucker	Henry Meyer Clarissa Annie Tucker 💍 1893/3150	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 26	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	St. Mary of the Angels	93/3360		15 December 1893	Very Rev. J. T. Devoy
397	16 December 1893	Samuel Roberts Christina Ingles Lindsay	Samuel Roberts Christina Ingles Lindsay 💍 1893/3602	Bachelor Spinster	Sign Writer	24 21	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	House of Mr. Lindsay, Bowen Street	93/3892		16 December 1893	Rev. G. J. Allen
398	16 December 1893	James Henry Lingard Annie Wiltshire	James Henry Lingard Annie Wilshire 💍 1893/643	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 25	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Registrars office, Wellington	93/3435		16 December 1893	Mr. M. L. Wyall
399	18 December 1893	James Manle Barbara Archibald	James White Barbara Archibald Shearer 💍 1893/3178	Bachelor Spinster	Bottler	21 21	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	House of Bridegroom, Cuba Street	93/3409		18 December 1893	Rev. J. Paterson
400	19 December 1893	Robert Hollistic Purrence Rosina Fisher	Robert Holister Parrant Rose Ada Fisher 💍 1893/3547	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinetmaker	24 19	Petone Petone	4 years 4 years	House of Mr. Fisher, Petone	93/3858	Edward Adolph Fisher, Father	19 December 1893	Rev. N. Thomson
401	19 December 1893	Yalmar Bernard Jennie Hamilton Selfer		Bachelor Spinster	Coachsmith	22 19	Petone Petone	4 years 4 years	The Church Room, Petone	93/3384	Robert Hamilton Selfer, Father	19 December 1893	Rev. Joshua Jones
402	19 December 1893	Henry Gardiner May Reid	Henry Gardiner May Bird 💍 1893/654	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 23	Wellington Wellington	3 days 4 years	Registrars office, Wellington	93/3432		19 December 1893	Mr. M. L. Wyall

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 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).