Intentions to Marry, 1894

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840406, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, June 6 2025

Page 035

District of Drury Quarter ending 31 March 1894 Registrar Sam Walker

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
1/94	1 January 1894	William James McLean Elizabeth Whitten	William James McLean Elizabeth Whitten 💍 1894/251	Bachelor Spinster	StoreKeeper	22 19	Pukekohe Pukekohe	4 days 1 month	English Church	94/161	John Whitten, Father	1 January 1894	Rev. E. I. McFarland, Church of England
2/94	8 January 1894	Frederick Hugh Stephens Mildred Selina Cuthbert	Frederick Hugh Stephens Mildred Eliza Cuthbert 💍 1894/252	Widower Spinster	Commission Agent	26 21	Bombay Bombay	4 weeks 2 years 7 months	English Church	94/162		8 January 1894	Rev. E. I. McFarland, Church of England
3/94	10 January 1894	George Arthur Worsley Martha Buttmore	George Arthur Worsley Martha Buttimore 💍 1894/253	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	30 23	Paparata Paparata	2 years 10 months 23 years	House of Mr. Buttmore	94/163		10 January 1894	Rev. E. I. McFarland, Church of England
4/94	20 January 1894	Thomas Murray Annie McKenzie	Thomas Murray Annie McKenzie 💍 1894/249 Thomas Jensen Jessie McKenzie 💍 1895/31	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 32	Clevedon Clevedon	28 years 27 years	Presbyterian Church	94/159		20 January 1894	Rev. Thos. Rorie, Presbyterian Minister
5/94	23 January 1894	Albert Ernest Grindrod Lily Reynolds	Albert Ernest Grindrod Lily Reynolds 💍 1894/254	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 23	Auckland Bombay	13 years 7 years	Residence of Auckland, Mount Eden	94/164	Mr. Alfred Reynolds	23 January 1894	Rev. E. I. McFarland, Church of England
6/94	6 February 1894	Michael Joseph Leahy Francis Mary Denny	Michael Joseph Carr Frances Mary Denny 💍 1894/255	Bachelor Spinster	Platelayer	23 22	Papakura Papakura	22 years 5 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Papakura	94/165		6 February 1894	Very Rev. F. D. O'Hara, R. C. Priest
7/94	20 February 1894	Frederick Charles Denny Isabel Luke	Frederick Gallagher Isabel Luke 💍 1894/250	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	25 24	Clevedon Clevedon	25 years 2 years	House of Mr. Luke	94/160		20 February 1894	Rev. Thos. Rorie, Presbyterian Minister
8/94	22 March 1894	Jean Albert Gigglemans Anna Schlaepfer	Jean Albert Diggelman Anna Schlaepfer 💍 1894/272	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 31	Pukekohe Pukekohe	1 week 12 months	House of Jacob Schlaepfer	94/158		22 March 1894	Rev. W. F. Findley, Presbyterian Minister
9/94	22 March 1894	Aloys John Gustave Schmidt Clara Bella Hale	Aloys John Gustave Schmitt Clara Bella Hale 💍 1894/816	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 31	Clevedon Clevedon	7 years 30 years	All Souls Church	94/168		22 March 1894	Rev. H. D. Boyes, Church of England

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).