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 1224

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
401	19 October 1893	Robert Dunce Georgina Rattray	Robert Dunn Georgina Rattray 💍 1893/4072	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	32 21	Hawera Hawera	2 years 2 years	Registrars Office Auckland	93/3064	19 October 1893	S. H. Lyons, Registrar
402	23 October 1893	William Alison Eliza Ann Wherepaker	William Alison Eliza Ann Wharepapa 💍 1893/3003	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 21	Mangakahia Mangakahia	18 months 21 years	St. Sepulchres Church Parnell	93/3043	23 October 1893	Rev. Archd. S. B. Clarke, Church of England
403	25 October 1893	George Santo Isabella Forbes Chapman	George Banks Isabella Forbes Chapman 💍 1893/3008	Widower Spinster	Builder	68 39	Devonport Devonport	30 years 20 years	Registrars Office Auckland	93/3065	25 October 1893	S. H. Lyons, Registrar
404	25 October 1893	George Thomas Forrester Esther Sarah Pillinger	George Thomas Forrester Estha Sarah Pillenger 💍 1893/2979	Bachelor Spinster	Postmaster	28 25	Auckland Mt. Eden	3 years 26 years	St. Sepulchres Church	93/3005	25 October 1893	Rev. Archd. B. S. Dudley, Church of England
405	25 October 1893	Frederick Wright Emily Squier	Frederick Wright Emily Squire 💍 1893/3564	Widower Spinster	Plumber	56 43	Auckland Otahuhu	18 years 14 years	Church of England Otahuhu	93/3854	25 October 1893	Rev. J. Gould, Church of England
406	25 October 1893	Thomas George Brown Elizabeth Craig Stewart	Thomas George Brown Elizabeth Craig Stewart 💍 1893/3813	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	27 22	Auckland Auckland	9 years 22 years	St. Stephen's Church Ponsonby	93/4054	25 October 1893	Rev. J. F. Robertson, Presbyterian Church
407	30 October 1893	Victor John Larner Margaret Hill	Victor John Layner Margaret Hill 💍 1893/3618	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Accountant	32 27	Devonport Devonport	3 years 4 years	Presbyterian Church Devonport	93/3992	30 October 1893	Rev. J. Hill, Presbyterian Church

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).