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 198

District of Wairau 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
9	3 March 1893	Herbert Remington Annie Rabbits	Herbert Bonnington Annie Rabbits 💍 1893/1062	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd home	26 20	Wairau Valley Blenheim	26 years 18 years	At the residence of Mr. Edward Rabbits, High St, Blenheim	93/469	Edward Rabbits, father	3 March 1893	Venble. J. F. Grace
10	4 March 1893	William Hancarrow Ada Augusta Powell	William Nancarrow Ada Augusta Powell 💍 1893/1149	Bachelor Spinster	Ship Purser home	34 26	East placey abode Blenheim Picton at present	3 days 3 days	Holy Trinity Church Picton	93/459		4 March 1893	Rev. C. A. Ledgerink
11	4 March 1893	William Archibald Fuller Sarah Jane Caller	William Archibald Fuller Sarah Jane Carter 💍 1893/1055	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher home	21 19	Tua Marina Renwicktown	4 1/2 years 19 years	Tua Marina Road Blenheim	93/464	Jessie Caller, formerly mother	4 March 1893	Rev. W. O. Robb
12	8 March 1893	John Spendeman Charlotte Patchett	John Hyndman Charlotte Patchett 💍 1893/1060	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer home	22 18	Blenheim Blenheim	2 years 16 years	At the residence of Mr. John Patchett, Maxwell Road, Blenheim	93/465	John Patchett, father	8 March 1893	Rev. W. O. Robb
13	20 March 1893	Frederick Gregson Annie Quinn	Frederick Hodgson Annie Onion 💍 1893/1559	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd home	31 21	Wairau Valley Wairau Valley	8 years 2 years	Residence of Mr. Quinn, Wairau Valley	93/1479		20 March 1893	Very Rev. John McNamara
14	24 March 1893	William Haines Bessie Haines formerly Thomas Wilden	William Haines Bessie Haines 💍 1893/737	Bachelor Widow	Labourer domestic duties	44 32	Renwicktown Renwicktown	3 years 2 years	Registrar of Marriages Blenheim	93/907		24 March 1893	W. E. P. Callaghan, Registrar
15	30 March 1893	John Gibson Reardon Maud Lyford	John Gibson Reardon Maud Lyford 💍 1893/1558	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer home	20 22	Springlands Blenheim	7 years 7 years	St. Mary's Church Blenheim	93/1476	Mary Agnes Reardon, mother	30 March 1893	Very Rev. John McNamara

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).