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 1228

District of Auckland 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
429	17 November 1893	John Barton Elizabeth Hampton	John Martin Elizabeth Mercer 💍 1893/556 John Harris Elizabeth Symons 💍 1893/343 John Marr Elizabeth Taylor 💍 1893/1835 John Grooby Elizabeth Thompson 💍 1893/1235 John Barrett Elizabeth Hughes 💍 1893/648 John Loudon Elizabeth Higgie 💍 1893/2664 John Mackay Elizabeth Taylor 💍 1894/917 John Duncan Elizabeth Patterson 💍 1893/552 John Morrison Elizabeth Jane Scott 💍 1893/775 John Hamilton Elizabeth Maria Kennard 💍 1894/423 John Tilson Elizabeth Weir Edmond 💍 1893/2836 John Yanko Elizabeth Jane Richmond 💍 1894/394	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	27 30	Auckland Auckland	3 years 30 years	St Patricks Cathedral	93/3957		17 November 1893	Rev. J. Hackett, Roman Cath.
430	17 November 1893	George Henwood Carter Mary Grant	George Henwood Mary Grant 💍 1893/637	Bachelor Spinster	Registrar	18 17	Auckland Auckland	5 years 7 years	Registrars Office	93/3072	Wm. Henwood Carter, Father; Wm. Grant, Father	17 November 1893	E. H. Lyons, Registrar
431	21 November 1893	Archibald Wishart Annie Jemmetta Reynell	Archibald Wishart Annie Jeannetta Reynell 💍 1893/3083	Bachelor Spinster	Cleaner	22 22	Auckland Eden Terrace	22 years	House of R. C. H. Reynell	93/3024		21 November 1893	Rev. R. S. West, Presbyterian
432	21 November 1893	Josias Simpson Orr Maria Jane Robb	Josias Simpson Orr Maria Jane Robb 💍 1893/2896	Bachelor Spinster	Upholsterer	31 25	Auckland York Street	19 years 25 years	House of Mr. J. Robb	93/3015		21 November 1893	Rev. R. S. West, Presbyterian
433	22 November 1893	Alexander McKenzie Elizabeth Clark	Alexander McKenzie Elizabeth Clark 💍 1893/2897	Bachelor Spinster	Bus Driver	28 24	Avondale Waikomiti	1 year 1 year	St Davids Church Auckland	93/3016		22 November 1893	Rev. R. S. West, Presbyterian
434	23 November 1893	John Semmell Bridget Derany	John Fennell Bridget Devany 💍 1893/633 John Jones Bridget Garvey 💍 1894/921	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser	33 29	Hawera Howick	5 years 9 years	Roman Catholic Ch. Howick	93/3089		23 November 1893	Very Rev. W. H. Donald, Roman Cath.
435	24 November 1893	James Horne Mary Elizabeth Rush	James Horne Mary Elizabeth Rush 💍 1893/4150	Bachelor Spinster	Boatman	22 21	Ponsonby Ponsonby	2 years 2 weeks	All Saints Church Ponsonby	93/4017		24 November 1893	Rev. W. Calder, Ch. of P.

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).