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 988

District of Feilding 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
383	8 July 1893	Charles McHardie Edith Alice Robinson	Charles McHardie Edith Alice Robinson 💍 1893/2403	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 23	Feilding Feilding	2 years 3 months	W. J. Bowater Feilding	93/2349		8 July 1893	W. G. Walkin
384	2 August 1893	Joseph Arthur Beefit Emily Sarah Pope	Joseph Arthur Belfil Emily Sarah Pope 💍 1893/2198	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmiller	28 24	Feilding Feilding	20 years 19 years	Primitive Methodist Church Feilding	93/2305		2 August 1893	G. Clement
385	2 August 1893	Frederick William Ellis Margaret Ann Wilkinson	Frederick William Ellis Margaret Anne Wilkinson 💍 1893/2196	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 25	Hunterville Feilding	4 days 14 days	Primitive Methodist Church Feilding	93/2304		2 August 1893	G. Clement
386	11 August 1893	John Henry Anderson Peacock Elizabeth Alexander	John Henry Anderson Peacock Elizabeth Alexander 💍 1893/2194	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	45 35	Apiti Fowlers	7 days 4 months	Registrars Office	93/2302		11 August 1893	J. H. Stemms
387	11 August 1893	James Reid Temperley Frances Bielski	James Reid Temperley Frances Bielski 💍 1893/4021	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	33 18	Pemberton Rangiwahia	6 months 6 years	Residence of Martin Bielski Rangiwahia	93/2306	Martin Bielski, father	11 August 1893	J. E. Patterson
388	12 August 1893	Daniel Tremewan Susan Roach	Daniel Tremewan Susan Roach 💍 1893/2345	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	46 36	Makino Feilding	10 years 9 months	Residence of Tremewan Makino	93/2314		12 August 1893	G. E. Carr
389	14 August 1893	William Steele Hill Mary O'Dwyer	William Steele Hill Mary ODwyer 💍 1893/2195	Bachelor Widow	Coach driver	30 40	Feilding Feilding	12 months 12 months	Registrars Office	93/2303		14 August 1893	J. H. Stemms
390	15 August 1893	Isaac Edward Taylor Ada Margaret Adams	Isaac Edward Taylor Ada Margaret Adams 💍 1893/4022	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 22	Le Horo Makino	3 days 10 years	Residence of Geo Adams Makino	93/2307	Geo Adams, father	15 August 1893	G. Clement
391	23 September 1893	John Henry Scott Emily Louisa Fickler	John Henry Scott Emily Louise Fidler 💍 1893/3624 John Henry Scott Isabella Agnes Millar 💍 1893/1879	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 20	Feilding Feilding	13 years 6 years	Residence of Geo Fickler Makino	93/3998	George Fickler, father	23 September 1893	G. Clement
392	30 September 1893	Walter Edward Turner Margaret Green	Walter Edward Turner Margaret Green 💍 1893/4076	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	21 23	Feilding Feilding	18 years 1 year	Anglican Church Feilding	93/3261		30 September 1893	A. S. Dumas Jones

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).