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 160

District of Feilding 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
403	3 January 1894	William Lovejoy Frances Fannie Turner	William Lovejoy Frances Fannie Turner 💍 1894/3926	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker	24 20	Feilding Feilding	1 year 20 years	Residence of Jane Turner, Feilding	94/998	Jane Turner, mother	3 January 1894	H. M. Murray, Feilding
404	4 January 1894	William Cornwall Matilda Jane Watkins	William Cornwale Matilda Jane Watkins 💍 1894/410	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	35 25	Cheetkham Cheetkham	6 years 6 years	Registrars Office, Feilding	94/319		4 January 1894	The Registrar, Feilding
405	15 January 1894	John Reid Mackintosh Christina Abel	John Reid MacKintosh Christina Apel 💍 1894/392	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	24 18	Makino Makino	2 1/2 years 10 years	Residence of Peter Abel, Makino	94/325	Peter Abel, father	15 January 1894	H. M. Murray, Feilding
406	18 January 1894	Robert Henry Whisker Ellen Fraser	Robert Henry Whisker Ellen Fraser 💍 1894/970	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 28	Feilding Feilding	27 years 16 years	Residence of Donald Fraser, Feilding	94/999		18 January 1894	H. M. Murray, Feilding
407	10 February 1894	Frederick Herman Christopher Eggers Clara Louisa Bismarck	Friedrich Hermann Christoph Eggers Clara Louise Bismark 💍 1894/413	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 19	Waituna West Waituna West	2 years 15 years	Residence of J. Bismarck, Cunningham	94/322	no person in the colony having authority to give consent	26 February 1894	B. B. W. Meyer, Marton
408	19 February 1894	Gilbert McKay Rosina Maud Collins	Gilbert McKay Rosina Maud Collins 💍 1894/411	Bachelor Spinster	Mill owner	28 21	Feilding Feilding	3 days 3 days	Registrars Office, Feilding	94/320		19 February 1894	The Registrar, Feilding
409	20 February 1894	George William Duncan Theobald Mary Ann Chapman	George William Duncan Theobald Mary Ann Chapman 💍 1894/412	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	30 40	Feilding Feilding	3 years 4 years	Registrars Office, Feilding	94/321		20 February 1894	The Registrar, Feilding
410	10 March 1894	Alfred George Saunders Magdalena Maria Dorathea Bensemann	Alfred George Saunders Magdalene Marie Dorathea Bensemann 💍 1894/414	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 21	Waituna Waituna	4 years 13 years	Residence of J. A. Bensemann, Waituna	94/323		10 March 1894	B. B. W. Meyer, Marton
411	30 March 1894	John Edward Rudolph Varley Rosanna Teresa Cook	John Edward Rudolp Varley Rosanna Teresa Cook 💍 1894/1974	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 26	Kuwitea Kuwitea	7 years 1 year	Catholic Church, Feilding	94/2061		30 March 1894	J. F. Pallison, Palmerston North

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).