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 130

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 March 1894

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	8 January 1894	John Twigg Alberta Young	John Twigg Alberta Young 💍 1894/2055	Bachelor Spinster	Manager of Dairy Factory School Teacher	25 32	Hastings Napier	4 months 2 years	Cathedral	94/2099		8 January 1894	Rev. De Berdt Hovell, Church of England
2	12 January 1894	John Edwin Rolls Sarah Ellen Lord	John Edwin Rollo Sarah Ellen Lord 💍 1894/280	Bachelor Spinster	Trainer	35 20	Greenmeadows Taradale	3 years 20 years	Residence of bride's mother, Taradale	94/281	William Lock, father	12 January 1894	Rev. A. P. Clarke, Church of England
3	16 January 1894	Thomas Peter Halpin Elizabeth Kenny	Thomas Peter Halpin Elizabeth Kenny 💍 1894/572	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	27 25	Napier Napier	16 months 9 years	Roman Catholic Church, Napier	94/589		16 January 1894	Rev. M. Grogan, Roman Catholic Priest
4	17 January 1894	William Burnett Margaret Anne Caldwell	William Burnet Margaret Jane Caldwell 💍 1894/282	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	34 27	Napier Napier	7 years 14 years	St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Napier	94/283		17 January 1894	Rev. D. Sidey, Presbyterian Minister
5	20 January 1894	Robert Walter Sherriff Elsie Day Cobb	Robert Walker Ashcroft Elsie Day Cobb 💍 1894/284	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith	23 29	Napier Napier	10 years 9 years	Residence of bride's parents, Emerson St, Napier	94/267		20 January 1894	Rev. H. J. Elliott, Wesleyan Methodist
6	22 January 1894	James Stuart Orr Fanny Smith	James Stireat Orr Fanny Smith 💍 1894/4230	Bachelor Spinster	Tanner	26 26	Puketitiri Papakura	4 years 6 years	Residence of bride's father, Papakura	94/284		22 January 1894	Rev. D. Sidey, Presbyterian Minister
7	24 January 1894	William Finlayson Mary Elizabeth Watt	William McIntyre Finlayson Mary Elizabeth Watt 💍 1894/28 William Fielding Margaret Watt 💍 1894/3906	Bachelor Spinster	Boilermaker Dressmaker	23 24	Napier Napier	7 years 24 years	Residence of bride's parents, Hillston Road, Napier	94/285		24 January 1894	Rev. D. Sidey, Presbyterian Minister
8	1 February 1894	Francis Murrow Alice McBryde	Francis Murrow Alice McBryde 💍 1894/573	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	24 48	Napier Napier	Since birth Since birth	St. Mary's Catholic Church, Napier	94/590	John McBryde, father	1 February 1894	Rev. M. Grogan, Roman Catholic Priest
9	1 February 1894	Kenneth Alexander McKenzie Maud Endora Watson	Kenneth Alexander McKenzie Maud Endora Watson 💍 1894/289	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	37 22	Napier Napier	Since birth 15 years	St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Napier	94/272		1 February 1894	Rev. D. Paterson, Presbyterian Minister
10	3 February 1894	Frank Bennett Sarah Franklin	Frank Bennett Sarah Franklyn 💍 1894/288	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 20	Clive Clive	10 years 19 years	Church of England, Clive	94/271	Joseph Franklin, father	3 February 1894	Rev. W. St. Hill, 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 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).