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 664

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 January 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
150	24 April 1893	Henry John Frederick Taylor Agnes Pepperell	Henry John Frederick Taylor Agnes Pepperell 💍 1893/1648	Bachelor Spinster	Law Miller	26 22	Christchurch Woolston	20 years 22 years	St. Johns Church	93/1684		24 April 1893	Rev C. H. Gosset Church of England
151	24 April 1893	William Hazfield Emily Marsden	William Hayfield Emily Marsden 💍 1893/1501	Widower Widow	Coal dealer	51 30	House of Mr. Samuel Rountree, Colombo Rd. Sydenham	12 years 16 years	House of Mr. Samuel Rountree, Colombo Rd.	93/1643		24 April 1893	Rev G. N. Battle Wesleyan
152	24 April 1893	Elisha Mitchell Frances Thomas Barbour	Elisha Mitchell Frances Thomas 💍 1893/3975	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	39 38	Christchurch Christchurch	11 years 16 years	House of Mr. Thomas Barbour, Ferry Road	93/1614		24 April 1893	Rev H. Irvine Presbyterian
153	24 April 1893	Harry Jackson Henrietta Gardiner	Harry Jackson Henrietta Gardiner 💍 1893/1500	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 22	Christchurch Burwood	1 year 2 years	Church of England	93/1641		24 April 1893	Rev F. R. Inwood Church of England
154	25 April 1893	Arthur Greenwood Elizabeth Mary Harbison	Arthur Grimwood Elizabeth Mary Harleison 💍 1893/1739	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 10 years	Registrars Office	93/1703		25 April 1893	Registrar of Marriages, Christchurch
155	25 April 1893	Henry Alfred Wheeler Jane Mary Ridley	Henry Alfred Wheeler Jane Mary Ridley 💍 1893/1680	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer Housemaid	25 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 20 years	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church	93/1666	No person to Consent	10 May 1893	Rev William Leeson Roman Catholic
156	26 April 1893	William Rennie Henrietta Anna Amelia Nichols	William Rennie Anna Amelia Nichols 💍 1893/1761	Widower Spinster	Carpenter	46 35	Christchurch North Canterbury	14 years 14 years	House of Mr. Benjamin H. Nichols, North Canterbury	93/1618		26 April 1893	Rev C. H. Bradbury Congregational

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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).