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 836

District of Auckland 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
363	13 September 1893	John Shirtcliff Elizabeth Margaret Imagee	John Shirtcliff Elizabeth Margaret Magee 💍 1893/2088	Bachelor Spinster	Asylum Attendant	33 27	Avondale Avondale	2 years 3 years	St. James Church, Wellington Street	93/2142		13 September 1893	Rev. R. Thacmiel, Presbyterian
364	14 September 1893	David Wilkie Jeanie Robertson	David Wilkie Jeanie Roberton 💍 1893/2855	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 28	Otakeho Auckland	2 years 28 years	St. Sepulchre Church	93/2956		14 September 1893	Rev. Arch. B. I. Dudley, Church of England
365	16 September 1893	John Woodward Sarah Elizabeth Dowrick	John Woodward Sarah Elizabeth Dowrick 💍 1893/2046	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 19	Diching Green Lane	25 years 5 years	Registrars Office, Auckland	93/2099	Dowrick, Father	16 September 1893	C. H. Lyons, Registrar
366	18 September 1893	Thomas Henry Hoggett Birdsall Emma Ann Ashton	Thomas Henry Hoggett Birdsall Emma Ann Ashton 💍 1893/2047	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	23 24	Omaha Omaha	23 years 5 years	Registrars Office, Auckland	93/2100		18 September 1893	C. H. Lyons, Registrar
367	18 September 1893	William Perkin Williams Jane Roy Moore	William Perkin Williams Jane Roy Moore 💍 1893/2974	Widower Spinster	Clerk	28 21	Auckland Auckland	18 years 21 years	St. Marks Church, Remuera	93/3000		18 September 1893	Rev. I. Richard, Church of England
368	18 September 1893	Henry Roper Porter Catherine Smart Smith	Henry Roper Porter Catherine Smart Smith 💍 1893/2089	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	26 29	Huntly Auckland	3 years 28 years	House of Mrs. E. Fallo, Sunday School, Newton	93/2143		18 September 1893	Rev. R. Thacmiel, Presbyterian
369	18 September 1893	Thomas Edward Bright Cecilia Thompson Peat	Thomas Edward Bright Cecilia Thomson Peat 💍 1893/2422	Bachelor Spinster	Wood Carver	27 22	Remuera Thames	27 years 22 years	St. James Church, Thames	93/3510		18 September 1893	Rev. J. S. Robertson, Presbyterian
370	18 September 1893	James Munro Esther Annie Hopkins	James Munro Esther Annie Hopkins 💍 1893/3812	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	25 23	Ponsonby Ponsonby	8 years 23 years	House of Mrs. E. Hipkin, Prospect Street, Ponsonby	93/4053		18 September 1893	Rev. S. J. Bail, Presbyterian

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).