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 1063

District of Christchurch 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
257	19 July 1893	Henry Russell Smith Mary Jane Robertson	Henry Russell Smith Mary Jane Robertson 💍 1893/2759	Bachelor Spinster	Boilermaker	22 19	Christchurch Christchurch	14 years 2 years	House of Mr. Hosking, St. Joseph Street, Christchurch	93/2516	Father	19 July 1893	Rev. J. Hosking, United Methodist
258	19 July 1893	Henry Smith Annie Maria Asher	Henry Wirth Annie Maria Asher 💍 1893/2378	Bachelor Widow	Musician	33 31	Christchurch Christchurch	4 months 4 months	Registrar's Office	93/2535		19 July 1893	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Ollivier
259	22 July 1893	Charles Daniel Henry Schroeder Alice Mary Davis	Charles Daniel Henry Schroeder Alice Mary Davis 💍 1893/3872	Bachelor Spinster	Servant	29 24	Christchurch Courtenay	10 days 24 days	St. Matthew's Church	93/2557		22 July 1893	Rev. H. Collins, Church of England
260	22 July 1893	Leonard Mansell Burrell Cummins Emily Olivia Hobbs	Leonard Mansell Durell Cummins Emily Olivia Hobbs 💍 1893/2454	Bachelor Spinster	Boilermaker	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 months 7 years	St. Luke's Church	93/2549		22 July 1893	Ven. Archdeacon Lingard, Church of England
261	24 July 1893	William Peters Maria Jones	William Peters Christiana Maria Jones 💍 1893/3873 William Henry Bowers Laura Jones 💍 1894/716 William Martin Annie Jones 💍 1893/4075	Widower Spinster	Houseman	47 42	Christchurch Linwood	7 years 7 years	House of Wm. Peters, Rolleston St.	93/2559		24 July 1893	Rev. S. Dolamore, Baptist
262	25 July 1893	William Harvey Kate Charlotte Hart	William Harvey Catherine Charlotte Hart 💍 1893/2475	Bachelor Spinster	Dyer	19 18	Christchurch Christchurch	19 years 1 year	House of W. Harvey, Office Road	93/2606	William Harvey, Father of Groom; Mary Ann Hart, Mother of Bride	25 July 1893	Rev. R. Erwin, Presbyterian
263	27 July 1893	John Burbroske Griffith Emily Mary Ollivier	John Barbrooke Grubb Emily Mary Wilson 💍 1893/2379	Bachelor Spinster	Stationer	30 22	Christchurch Christchurch	8 months 2 years	Registrar's Office	93/2536		27 July 1893	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Ollivier

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).