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 766

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 30 June 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
49	30 May 1893	Alfred George Campbell Cosgrove Edith Garden	Alfred James Campbell Cossgrove Edith Garden 💍 1893/1961	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith	23 16	Woodlands Woodlands	3 years 14 years	House of Rev. Geo. Lindsay	93/1956	under section 27	15 June 1893	Rev. Geo. Lindsay
50	31 May 1893	James Ballantyne Margaret Thomason	James Ballantyne Margaret Thomson 💍 1893/1964	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22 23	Invercargill Invercargill	18 years 19 years	Office of the Registrar	93/1976		31 May 1893	J. W. Wilkin, Registrar
51	7 June 1893	Francis William Crawford Wilson Catherine Nicol	Francis William Crawford Mussen Catherine Nicol 💍 1893/1950	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	22 19	Invercargill Invercargill	15 years 8 years	House of Rev. Wm. Scott, Clyde St.	93/1955	Father	7 June 1893	Rev. Geo. Lindsay
52	10 June 1893	James Hardman Sabina Ford	James Hardiman Sabina Ford 💍 1893/1953	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	45 32	Invercargill Invercargill	14 days 14 years	Roman Catholic Chapel	93/1966		10 June 1893	Rev. E. Vereker
53	13 June 1893	James Dernold Hopkins Barbara Jane Warden	James Devenold Hopkins Barbara Jane Warden 💍 1893/1988	Bachelor Spinster	Lawyer	25 22	Riverton Riverton	6 years 22 years	House of Rev. Henry Warden	93/1957		13 June 1893	Rev. Thos. Alexander
54	13 June 1893	Donald Ewen Rae Martha Jane Pitches	Donald McCrae Martha Jane Pitches 💍 1893/1951	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	29 22	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 3 days	House of Mr. John Masterton, Tweed St.	93/1964		13 June 1893	Rev. John Ferguson
55	14 June 1893	William Henry Bourley Bonney Louisa Alsweiler	William Henry Bonney Louisa Alsweiler 💍 1893/1958	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmill Hand	34 21	Kennington Appleby	13 years 21 years	House of Mrs. Alsweiler	93/1971		14 June 1893	Rev. Joseph Sharp

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).