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 828

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
303	22 July 1893	Alfred Thomas Hunt Eliza Ann Carly	Alfred Thomas Hunt Eliza Anne Carly 💍 1893/2074	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 28	Remuera Remuera	1 year 3 years	House of Mr. C. Carly	93/2152		22 July 1893	Rev. G. B. Munro, Presbyterian
304	24 July 1893	John Kavanagh Jessie Ann Lucy McDougall	John Kavanagh Jessie Ann Lucy McDugall 💍 1893/3737	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	36 26	Helensville Auckland	10 years 2 months	Roman Catholic Ch.	93/4021		24 July 1893	Rev. J. Paul, Roman Catholic
305	24 July 1893	William Henry Smith Cecilia Marion Sowry	William Henry Smith Cecilia Marion Sowry 💍 1893/2073	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	19 20	Mt. Eden Arch Hill	9 years	House of Mr. R. Sowry	93/2151	Carl Smith, Father of Groom; Rich. Sowry, Father of Bride	24 July 1893	Rev. G. B. Munro, Presbyterian
306	25 July 1893	Wm. Shackleton Provis Lucie Ethel Brookfield	William Shackson Grovis Lucie Ethel Brookfield 💍 1893/615	Bachelor Spinster	Agent	28 24	Napier Onehunga	15 years 24 years	St. Peter Church	93/2118		25 July 1893	Rev. W. S. Shulga, Ch. of England
307	25 July 1893	Fred Porter Colhoun Rosina Harvey Colhoun	Fred Porter Rosina Harvey Colhoun 💍 1893/2069	Bachelor Spinster	Driver	28 20	Mangere Mangere	5 years 14 years	House of Mr. A. Colhoun	93/2147	A. Colhoun, Father of Bride	25 July 1893	Rev. R. Ferguson, Presbyterian
308	26 July 1893	John Mitchell Sylvia Patch	John Mitchell Sylvia Patch 💍 1893/2041	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 21	Mt. Eden Auckland	25 years 10 years	Registrar Office	93/2086		26 July 1893	C. H. Lyon, Registrar
309	26 July 1893	Henry Wilson Power Frances Ethel Seccombe	Henry Wilson Power Frances Ethel Seacombe 💍 1893/2853	Bachelor Spinster	Customs Officer	29 26	Auckland Auckland	29 years 10 years	St. Sepulchre Church	93/2954		26 July 1893	Rev. Arch. B. J. Dudley, Ch. of England

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).