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 349

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 March 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
15	13 February 1893	Thomas Hall Margaret Weatherstone Langie	Thomas Hall Margaret Matheson McKenzie 💍 1893/226	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	26 17	Woodend Woodend	2 years 7 years	Wesleyan Church, Leet Street	93/806	Donald Weatherstone Langie, father	13 February 1893	Rev Robb Taylor
16	14 February 1893	Samuel Green Gordon Diggon Alice Jane Willcocks	Samuel Green Alice Jane Willcocks 💍 1893/557	Labourer Spinster	Digger	62 27	Invercargill Invercargill	1 week 1 week	Office of the Registrar	93/820		14 February 1893	J. W. Wilkin, Registrar
17	14 February 1893	James Drysdale Catherine McIntyre	James Drysdale Catherine McIntyre 💍 1893/231	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	45 45	Dipton Bush Long Bush	20 years 25 years	Presbyterian Church	93/810		14 February 1893	Rev Robert Thornton
18	14 February 1893	James McCloskie Erahilda Kallm	James McCloskie Matilda Kallm 💍 1893/230	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer	25 20	Ruakarewa Ruakarewa	4 years 16 years	House of Mr Fredk Kallm	93/809	Frederick Kallm, father	14 February 1893	Rev Robt Thornton
19	14 February 1893	Neil McDonald Mary Robertson	Neil McDonald Mary Robertson 💍 1893/235	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	40 31	Invercargill Waianiwa	3 days 31 years	House of Mrs John Robertson	93/792		14 February 1893	Rev Wm White
20	23 February 1893	John McKinnon Amy Laura Eitson	John McKinnon Amy Laura Gibson 💍 1893/550	Bachelor Spinster	Insurance	32 22	Invercargill Invercargill	7 years 1 year	St Johns Church, Tay Street	93/814		23 February 1893	Ven arch deacon Stocker
21	27 February 1893	Joseph Preston Annie Green	Joseph Preston Annie Mein 💍 1893/234	Bachelor Spinster	Runholder	26 26	Fortrose Invercargill	12 years 3 days	St Johns Church, Tay Street	93/813		27 February 1893	Rev H. W. Quartley

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).