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 826

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
289	8 July 1893	Alexander Webber Annie Maria Webber	Alexander William Bowden Annie Maria Webber 💍 1893/2075	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman	21 20	Auckland Auckland	7 yrs 2 mos	House of J. Simcock	93/2153	James Webber, Father	8 July 1893	W. G. Aldridge, Ch. of Christ
290	12 July 1893	Thomas Knight Rebecca Eleanor Wall	Thomas Knight Rebecca Eleanor Wale 💍 1893/601	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	36 27	Newton Penrose	29 yrs 27 "	House of H. Wall	93/2126		12 July 1893	Rev. R. S. West, Presbyterian
291	12 July 1893	John Henry Siplady Alice Allen Dibbs	John Henry Tiplady Alice Allen 💍 1893/603	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	32 30	Mangere Remuera	12 mos 3 yrs	St. Mary's Church, Parnell	93/2128		12 July 1893	Rev. S. R. Murray, Ch. of England
292	13 July 1893	David Elstow Sarah Heggan	David Elston Sarah Heggan 💍 1893/600	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	33 29	Chelsea Ponsonby	7 yrs 11 "	House of H. McCullagh	93/2125		13 July 1893	Rev. R. S. West, Presbyterian
293	14 July 1893	Johann Heinrich Friederich Petersen Edith Roose	Johann Heinrich Friedrich Petersen Edith Jane Roose 💍 1893/599	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	37 24	Maungatapere Three Kings	1 yr 2 mos	Wesley College House	93/2124		14 July 1893	Rev. W. J. Williams, Wesleyan
294	14 July 1893	Julius Arthur Birdstreet Mabel Wood	Julius Arthur Bradstreet Mabel Wood 💍 1893/2066	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	31 19	Mt. Roskill Auckland	2 mos 19 yrs	Congl. Church, Edinburgh St.	93/2144	Enoch Wood, Father	14 July 1893	Rev. C. Carter, Congl. Indep.
295	18 July 1893	Alfred George Weippert Ellen Maria Mooney	Alfred George Weippert Ellen Maria Mooney 💍 1893/2051	Bachelor Spinster	Insurance Agent	32 17	Auckland Newton	8 mos 12 "	House of Mrs. Mooney, Karaka St., Newton	93/2104	William Mooney, Father	18 July 1893	Rev. H. S. Greenwood, Ch. of Christ

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).