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 1312

District of Thames 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
44	21 November 1893	Joseph James Fry Ellen Farrell	Joseph James Fry Ellen Farrell 💍 1893/3053 John McBeath Ellen Farrell 💍 1893/3946	Bachelor Spinster	Police Constable Domestic Servant	27 19	Thames Thames	3 days 6 days	St. Francis Church, Willoughby St.	93/3144	John Farrell, father	21 November 1893	Rev. Patrick O'Reilly, Roman Catholic
45	25 November 1893	Harry Long Edith Caroline Hare	Harry Lang Edith Caroline Dare 💍 1893/3040	Bachelor Spinster	Miner None	21 18	Thames Thames	21 years 18 years	The Dwelling of Edmund Harvey Taylor, Parawai	93/3152	William Hare, father	25 November 1893	Edmund Harvey Taylor, Church of Christ
46	20 December 1893	Timothy Moriarty Ona Margaret Moran	Timothy Moriarty Dora Margaret Moran 💍 1893/3054	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer None	49 25	Thames Thames	1 week 24 years	St. Francis Church, Willoughby St.	93/3145		20 December 1893	Rev. Patrick O'Reilly, Roman Catholic
47	20 December 1893	George Robertson Mary Ann Hill	George Robertson Mary Ann Hill 💍 1893/3733	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Dress Maker	21 23	Thames Rolleston Terrace	21 years 21 years	The Dwelling of Rev. J. J. Neill	93/4015		20 December 1893	Rev. J. J. Neill, Presbyterian
48	22 December 1893	Walter McDermott Margaret Brown	Walter McDermott Margaret Brown 💍 1893/3049 John William Fraser Jameson Margaret Brown 💍 1893/2679	Bachelor Spinster	Miner None	23 22	Thames Queen St., Thames	23 years 22 years	The Dwelling of William Brown	93/3143		22 December 1893	Rev. David McNicoll, Wesleyan
49	22 December 1893	Edwin George Lowe Ethel Jane Berry	Edwin George Lowe Ethel Jane Berry 💍 1893/3059	Bachelor Spinster	Miner None	23 20	Thames Thames	23 years 20 years	The Dwelling of Charles Berry, Pararu Creek	93/3150	Charles Berry, father	23 December 1893	Rev. J. O'Callaghan, Church of England
50	23 December 1893	William Henry Judd Julia Harris	William Henry Judd Julia Harris 💍 1893/3057	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Dress Maker	28 28	Thames Bird-in-hand Hill, Thames	20 years 16 years	The Dwelling of Peter Harris	93/3148		23 December 1893	Rev. John Olphert, Primitive Methodist

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).