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 085

District of Thames Quarter ending 31 March 1894 Registrar S. Homiss

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

3 February 1894

Josiah George
Mary Jane Harris

Josiah George
Mary Jane Harris
💍 1894/176

Widower
Spinster

Miner
Dressmaker

43
31

Lambert St, Waiotahi, Thames
Bird in Hand Hill, Thames

16 years
19 years

The Dwelling of Peter Harris, Bird in Hand Hill

94/198

3 February 1894

Rev. John Olphert, Primitive Methodist

No	1
Date of Notice	3 February 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Josiah George	Mary Jane Harris
	💍 1894/176
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Dressmaker
Age	43	31
Dwelling Place	Lambert St, Waiotahi, Thames	Bird in Hand Hill, Thames
Length of Residence	16 years	19 years
Marriage Place	The Dwelling of Peter Harris, Bird in Hand Hill
Folio	94/198
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1894
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Olphert, Primitive Methodist

14 February 1894

Augustus Christie
Clara Bird

Augustus Christie
Clara Bird
💍 1894/317

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic Servant

21
20

Waiotahi, Thames
Waiotahi, Thames

21 years
20 years

The Office of the Registrar, Thames

94/199

Mary Bird, mother

14 February 1894

S. Honiss, Registrar

No	2
Date of Notice	14 February 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Augustus Christie	Clara Bird
	💍 1894/317
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic Servant
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Waiotahi, Thames	Waiotahi, Thames
Length of Residence	21 years	20 years
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar, Thames
Folio	94/199
Consent	Mary Bird, mother
Date of Certificate	14 February 1894
Officiating Minister	S. Honiss, Registrar

3 March 1894

Alexander Malcolm McNeil
Grace McIntyre

Alexander Malcolm McNeil
Grace McIntyre
💍 1894/328

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Tailoress

31
29

Mackay St, Thames
Pollen St, Thames

6 years
20 years

The Dwelling of Mary Mc Intyre, Pollen St, Thames

94/200

3 March 1894

Rev. John Olphert, Primitive Methodist

No	3
Date of Notice	3 March 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Malcolm McNeil	Grace McIntyre
	💍 1894/328
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Tailoress
Age	31	29
Dwelling Place	Mackay St, Thames	Pollen St, Thames
Length of Residence	6 years	20 years
Marriage Place	The Dwelling of Mary Mc Intyre, Pollen St, Thames
Folio	94/200
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 March 1894
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Olphert, Primitive Methodist

24 March 1894

Alfred Long
Emma Julia Paul

Alfred Lang
Emma Julia Paul
💍 1894/335

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
French Polisher

22
18

Thames
Thames

22 years
18 years

Pollen St Lecture Hall, Thames

94/201

Joseph Paul, father

24 March 1894

Edmund Harvey Taylor, Church of Christ

No	4
Date of Notice	24 March 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Long	Emma Julia Paul
BDM Match (95%)	Alfred Lang	Emma Julia Paul
	💍 1894/335
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	French Polisher
Age	22	18
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	22 years	18 years
Marriage Place	Pollen St Lecture Hall, Thames
Folio	94/201
Consent	Joseph Paul, father
Date of Certificate	24 March 1894
Officiating Minister	Edmund Harvey Taylor, Church of Christ

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 1903. 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).