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 650

District of Nelson 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
34	7 June 1893	William Martin Susan Corder	William Martin Susan Corder 💍 1893/1534	Widower Widow	Labourer	68 49	Nile St Nelson St Vincent St.	8 years 4 years	Residence of Peter Martin, Nile St Nelson	93/1503	7 June 1893	George Bond, Wesleyan minister
35	14 June 1893	Charles John Jeffries Ellen Sutton	Charles John Jeffries Ellen Sutton 💍 1893/1531	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 26	Richmond Richmond	5 days 26 years	At the residence of Henry Sutton, Richmond	93/1499	14 June 1893	John S Richworth, Wesleyan Minister, Richmond
36	19 June 1893	Frederick William Nalder Margaret Elizabeth Duncan	Frederick William Nalder Margaret Elizabeth Duncan 💍 1893/1803	Bachelor Spinster	Mechanical Engineer	22 24	Nile Street East Nelson Nile Street East Nelson	22 years 3 years	Christchurch	93/1519	19 June 1893	J. P. Kempthorne, Church of England Minister
37	19 June 1893	George Alfred Ross Siverine Christine Simonsen	George Alfred Ross Silverina Christina Simonsen 💍 1893/1542	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	31 22	Wa Rapua Ra Wa Rapua Ra	3 weeks 6 days	Registrar of Marriages Office, Nelson	93/1570	19 June 1893	H. Calders, Registrar
38	21 June 1893	David Kirkwood Annie Elizabeth Dayman Scott	David Kirkwood Annie Elizabeth Dayman 💍 1893/1801	Widower Widow	Mechanical Engineer	52 34	Russell St Nelson Shakespeare Walk Nelson	3 days 14 years	At the residence of Alexander, Shakespeare Walk, Nelson	93/1517	21 June 1893	J. H. McKenzie, Presbyterian Minister
39	22 June 1893	David Martin Watson Mary Elizabeth Higgins	David Martin Watson Mary Elizabeth Higgins 💍 1893/1806	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Seamstress	24 22	Gloucester St Nelson Hardy St Nelson	2 years 18 years	At the residence of Sarah Higgins, Hardy St Nelson	93/1522	22 June 1893	W. J. Mahoney, Roman Catholic Priest
40	24 June 1893	David Benjamin Warnock Jessica Cole	David Benjamin Warnock Jessica Cole 💍 1893/2597	Bachelor Spinster	Milkman Housekeeper	24 26	Brightwater Brightwater	1 year 9 years	All Saints' Church, Vanguard St Nelson	93/2470	24 June 1893	F. W. Chatterton, Church of England Minister
41	26 June 1893	Richard Zinsli Mary Young	Richard Zinsli Mary Young 💍 1893/1804	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	26 28	W. W. Moyse residence, Trafalgar St Nelson W. W. Moyse residence, Trafalgar St Nelson	3 days 4 weeks	Christchurch	93/1520	26 June 1893	J. P. Kempthorne, Church of England Minister
42	28 June 1893	Sydney Arthur Burton Block Constance Adele Shallard		Bachelor Spinster	Dentist	24 24	Tasman St Nelson Hardy St Nelson	24 years 24 years	Chapel of the Holy Evangelist, Bishop of Sale Nelson	93/2869	28 June 1893	Charles Oliver Mules, Bishop of Church of England, Nelson
43	30 June 1893	William Rowell Alice Frank	William Rowell Alice Frank 💍 1893/2596	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith Dressmaker	22 22	Washington Valley Nelson Tasman Street Nelson	4 years 22 years	Roman Catholic Station, Manuka Street, Nelson	93/2469	30 June 1893	J. Landouan, Roman Catholic Priest

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 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).