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 1160

District of Severcarpel Quarter ending 30 September 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
66	5 August 1893	James McNadyean Janet Irving	James McFadyen Janet Irving 💍 1893/2693 William Scoular Fleming Janet Irving 💍 1894/931	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 24	Mabel Bush Mabel Bush	18 years 23 years	House of John Ferguson	93/2758		5 August 1893	Rev John Ferguson
67	5 August 1893	Richard Artis Cruickshank Mary McFarlane	Richard Artis Cruickshank Mary McFarlane 💍 1893/2673	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	23 24	Bluff Severcarpel	6 months 15 years	First Presbyterian Church, Severcarpel	93/2759		5 August 1893	Rev John Ferguson
68	14 August 1893	Charles Samuel Shaw Ada Eveline Cuff	Charles Samuel Steans Ada Evelyn Cuff 💍 1893/2674	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser	33 23	Severcarpel Severcarpel	3 days 23 years	House of Rev John Ferguson	93/2760		14 August 1893	Rev John Ferguson
69	17 August 1893	Arthur Westbury Annie Cowan Guildford	Arthur Westbury Annie Cowan Guilford 💍 1893/2682	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	25 17	Woodlands Brunswick	5 years 9 years	Brunswick Hall	93/2768	Henry John Guildford, father	17 August 1893	Rev Thos Alexander
70	18 August 1893	John William Fraser Margaret Brown	John William Fraser Jameson Margaret Brown 💍 1893/2679 John William Arthur Emmersson Margaret Helen Brown 💍 1893/1579 James Windle Margaret Brown 💍 1893/3710	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	27 29	Severcarpel Severcarpel	10 years 6 months	House of Rev Arch Brown	93/2765		18 August 1893	Rev. A. H. Stobo
71	21 August 1893	Isaac Haberfield Lucy Bennett	Isaac Haberfield Lucy Bennett 💍 1893/2675	Bachelor Widow	Sawmiller	26 26	Severcarpel Grasmere	3 days 13 years	House of John Ferguson	93/2761		21 August 1893	Rev John Ferguson
72	22 August 1893	Duncan Angus McLean Emma Bull	Duncan Angus McLean Emily Dell 💍 1893/2680	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	23 18	Brunswick Brunswick	7 weeks 8 years	Church of England, Taylors	93/2766	George Bull, father	22 August 1893	Ven Archdeacon Stacker

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).