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 972

District of Wellington 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
230	19 July 1893	James Parson Mary Swanson	James Parsons Mary Swanson 💍 1893/2252	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	31 28	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	Registrars office Wellington	93/2367		19 July 1893	W. L. Wyatt
231	19 July 1893	Alexander Emul Palmer Lilian May Mores	Alexander Ernest Palmer Lilian Mary Morris 💍 1893/2229	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 20	Upper Hutt Wellington	months years	Registrars office Wellington	93/2368	Annies [illegible] Guardian	19 July 1893	W. L. Wyatt
232	19 July 1893	James Doyle Alice Jane Brooks	James Doyle Alice Jane Brooks 💍 1893/2230	Bachelor Spinster	Sanitary Inspector	40 25	Wellington Wellington	years 3 days	Registrars office Wellington	93/2369		19 July 1893	W. L. Wyatt
233	19 July 1893	Thomas Undersell Agnes Allan Schapple	Thomas McDonald Agnes Allan Chapple 💍 1893/2872	Widower Spinster	Clergyman	38 27	Wellington Wellington	3 years 3 years	Home of Dr Chapple Willis Street	93/2974		19 July 1893	Revd. J. Paterson
234	20 July 1893	Charles Simson Young Mary Dorothea Edwards	Charles Simson Young Mary Dorothea Edwards 💍 1893/2823	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 22	Wellington Wellington	4 years 18 months	House of Mr Peppercorn Hopper Street	93/2886		20 July 1893	Revd. C. E. Ward
235	22 July 1893	Richard William Dingwall Jane Elizabeth Corner	Richard William Dingwall Jane Elizabeth Comer 💍 1893/2954	Bachelor Spinster	Timber Manager	24 21	Wellington Ngahauranga	4 days years	House of Mr Corner Ngahauranga	93/2927		22 July 1893	Revd. J. T. Thomson
236	22 July 1893	Joseph Samuel Wiley Sophia Dimond	Joseph Samuel Wiley Sophia Dimond 💍 1893/2219	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	28 30	Wellington Wellington	6 months 1 week	Wesleyan Parsonage Molesworth Street	93/2407		22 July 1893	Revd. J. J. Lewis
237	24 July 1893	Thomas James Dent Martha Alice Thompson	Thomas James Dent Martha Alice Thompson 💍 1893/2834	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 20	Porirua Porirua	years years	House of Mr G. Thompson Porirua	93/2887	George Thompson Father	24 July 1893	Revd. C. E. Ward
238	24 July 1893	Thomas Patterson Margaret Hawkins	Thomas Patterson Margaret Hawkins 💍 1893/2231	Bachelor Spinster	Saw Miller	24 22	Wellington Wellington	1 week 18 months	Registrars office Wellington	93/2370		24 July 1893	W. L. Wyatt
239	24 July 1893	David Smith Annie Hardham	David Smith Annie Hardham 💍 1893/2209	Bachelor Spinster	Milkman	26 31	Wellington Wellington	years years	Presbyterian Church Kent Terrace	93/2398		24 July 1893	Revd. J. K. Elliott
240	24 July 1893	George Green Emily Gregory	George Green Emily Gregory 💍 1893/2232	Bachelor Spinster	Fisherman	27 25	Wellington Wellington	years 6 months	Registrars office Wellington	93/2371		24 July 1893	W. L. Wyatt
241	25 July 1893	George Lee Mary Coster	George Lee Mary Coster 💍 1893/2233	Widower Spinster	Boat Builder	36 34	Wellington Wellington	3 months 3 years	Registrars office Wellington	93/2372		25 July 1893	W. L. Wyatt
242	25 July 1893	John Roberts Marshall Mary Reading	John Robert Marshall Mary Readding 💍 1893/2234	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	37 37	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	93/2373		25 July 1893	W. L. Wyatt
243	26 July 1893	Hugh Speirs Margaret Gibson	Hugh Speirs Margaret Gibson 💍 1893/2235	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 21	Wellington Wellington	3 weeks years	Registrars office Wellington	93/2374		26 July 1893	W. L. Wyatt
244	26 July 1893	Alfred Miles Kate Baker	Alfred Miles Kate Baker 💍 1893/2734	Bachelor Spinster	Stockman	25 21	Wellington Wellington	4 days years	St Pauls Cathedral	93/2850		26 July 1893	Revd. L. H. [illegible]

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).