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 580

District of Palmerston North 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
47	13 June 1893	Alexander Forrester Sarah Spellman	Alexander Forrester McMillan Sarah Spackman 💍 1893/1447 Alexander Johnston Sarah Morgan 💍 1894/139	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Domestic Servant	22 years 20 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	2 years 9 months	At the Office of the Registrar	93/1295		13 June 1893	Robt. N. Keeling, Registrar, Palmerston North
48	14 June 1893	Edward Henry Rogers Mary Matheson	Edward Henry Rogers Mary Matheson 💍 1893/1431 Henry Brockett Mary Matheson 💍 1893/4178	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	24 years 20 years	Harere Harere	4 years 13 years	At the house of Dr. Matheson	93/1302	father	14 June 1893	Revd. Wm. Thomson, Presbyterian Minister, Palmerston North
49	19 June 1893	Robert Dudley Worsfold Fanny Serian Thompson	Robert Dudley Worsfold Fanny Maria Thompson 💍 1893/1441	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	31 years 25 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	3 days 3 years	All Saints Church, Palmerston North	93/1289		19 June 1893	Revd. H. B. Harvey, Anglican Minister, Palmerston North
50	19 June 1893	Patrick Woulfe Lily Churcher	Patrick Woulfe Lily Churcher 💍 1893/1426	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 years 19	Bunnythorpe Bunnythorpe	2 years 2 years	At the Office of the Registrar	93/1296	Isaac Churcher, father	20 June 1893	Robt. N. Keeling, Registrar, Palmerston North
51	22 June 1893	Thomas Roberts Ellen O'Sullivan	Thomas Roberts Ellen O'Sullivan 💍 1893/2810	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 years 22 years	Pohangina Pohangina	6 years 10 months	St. Patrick's Church, Palmerston North	93/1282		22 June 1893	J. Patterson, C. P.
52	24 June 1893	John Lancelot Snellgrove Albertha Linter	John Lancelot Snellgrove Albertina Lintern 💍 1893/1427	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	33 years 24 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	3 days 3 years	At the Office of the Registrar	93/1299		24 June 1893	Robt. N. Keeling, Registrar, Palmerston North
53	26 June 1893	John Hitchman Margaret Cavanagh	John Hitchman Margaret Cavanagh 💍 1893/1315	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 years 18 years	Pohangina Ashurst	2 years 3 years	St. Patrick's Church, Palmerston North	93/1280	Patrick Cavanagh, father	26 June 1893	Revd. J. F. Patterson, C. P., Palmerston North

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).