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 405

District of Auckland 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
167	14 April 1893	Robert Hamilton Agnes Wallace McCrae	Robert Hamilton Agnes Wallace McCrae 💍 1893/397	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 22	Auckland Mangere	26 years 12 years	Dwelling of Geo. Room in McCrae	93/1056		14 April 1893	Rev. J. Stule, Presbyterian
168	18 April 1893	Simon Peter Cundy Millar Sarah Honold	Simon Peter Cundy Millar Sarah Hunt 💍 1893/492	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	34 22	Auckland Auckland	34 years 1 month	Dwelling of Simon P. C. Millar, Wellington St.	93/1139		18 April 1893	Rev. G. H. Bridgman, Wesleyan
169	18 April 1893	William Newell Honour Burdett	William Newell Florence Burdett Mens 💍 1893/3838	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	30 21	Dannevirke Epsom	18 months 4 months	Church of St. Mark	93/959		18 April 1893	Rev. J. Richards, Church of England
170	18 April 1893	Daniel Campbell Susan Dustin	Daniel Campbell Susan Dustin 💍 1893/362	Bachelor Spinster	Stoker	24 26	Auckland Auckland	8 years 26 years	Church of St. Paul	93/986		18 April 1893	Rev. C. M. Nelson, Ch. of England
171	19 April 1893	William Smyth Catherine Stanton	William Smyth Catherine Hunter 💍 1893/366	Bachelor Spinster	Millhand	40 25	Auckland Auckland	10 years 9 years	Registry Office	93/1014		19 April 1893	J. Owen Lord, Regr.
172	20 April 1893	Wm. Chas. Brambley Louise Press	William Charles Brambley Louisa Press 💍 1893/3731	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	26 31	Arch Hill Arch Hill	19 years 11 years	Church of England, Ponsonby	93/1404		20 April 1893	Rev. G. Boler, Ch. of England
173	20 April 1893	Sydney Chas. Wm. Coldicutt Flora Mary Hodder	Sydney Charles William Coldicutt Flora Mary Hulme 💍 1893/3556	Bachelor Spinster	Piano Tuner	23 20	Mt. Eden Auckland	23 years 14 years	Church of St. Matthew	93/3869	Mary Ann Hodder, mother	20 April 1893	Rev. H. Oldham, Ch. of England
174	20 April 1893	Joseph Thomas Johanna Rykers	Joseph Thomas Johanna Rykers 💍 1893/367	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	31 23	Auckland Auckland	13 years 13 years	Registry Office	93/1015		20 April 1893	J. Owen Lord, Regr.

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).