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 1132

District of Dunedin 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
219	15 August 1893	Robert McIskan Laing Helen Stuart Victoria Anderson	Robert McAslan Laing Helen Stuart Victoria Anderson 💍 1893/2649	Bachelor Spinster	Brassfinisher	20 years 16 years	Dunedin Dunedin	4 years 16 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriage	93/2679	John Laing and Millar Anderson fathers of minors	15 August 1893	W. J. Hall, Registrar of Marriage
220	17 August 1893	Hugh Harvey Helen Rose Burk	Hugh Harvey Helen Rose Burk 💍 1893/4044	Bachelor Spinster	Coachman	27 years 26 years	Peninsula Dunedin	26 years 26 years	In Knox Church	93/2712		17 August 1893	Revd. Dr. Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
221	18 August 1893	James Irvine Christiana Morrison	James Irvine Christiana Morrison 💍 1893/2667	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	47 years 43 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 22 years	In the house of John Hardie Morrison Royal Terrace	93/2707		18 August 1893	Revd. Dr. Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
222	19 August 1893	James Anderson Kerr Mary Cecilia Daubney	James Anderson Kerr Mary Cecilia Daubney 💍 1893/2660	Bachelor Spinster	Salvation Army Officer	29 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	4 months 3 days	In the Salvation Army Barracks	93/2720		19 August 1893	Major Charles Robinson, Salvation Army
223	21 August 1893	Thomas Henry Wootton Marion Skene	Thomas Henry Wootton Marion Ikene 💍 1893/2639	Bachelor Spinster	Tobacconist	29 years 28 years	Caversham Mornington	8 years 10 years	In the house of John Skene	93/2693		21 August 1893	Revd. L. Hudson, Wesleyan Minister
224	21 August 1893	James Conley Mary Strachan	James Corley Mary Strachan 💍 1893/3819	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser	25 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	25 years 22 years	In St. Joseph's Cathedral	93/4101		21 August 1893	Revd. P. Lynch, Roman Catholic Priest
225	22 August 1893	William Henry Smith Christina McLaughlan	William Henry Smith Christina McLaughlan 💍 1893/2712	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer	28 years 25 years	Dunedin Roslyn	22 years 3 months	In the house of John McDonald	93/2725		22 August 1893	Revd. R. P. Davidson, Presbyterian Minister

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).