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 164

District of Greytown 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
642	3 January 1894	Heta Hemi Huria Kini		Bachelor Spinster	native chief native	32 20	Martinborough Hokitika	32 years 15 years	House of the Maori Minister, Rev. Te Kote, Greytown N.Z.		Huria Muriwai, Aunt	3 January 1894	Rev. Te Kote
643	22 January 1894	John Frederick Saunders Emma Whybrow	John Frederick Saunders Emma Whybrow 💍 1894/396	Bachelor Spinster	Express Driver, Post & Telegraph Stores Saleswoman	26 26	Wellington Wellington	4 years 2 years	Residence of Mr. Jas. Baillie, Greytown N.Z.	94/329		22 January 1894	Rev. C. Murray
644	24 January 1894	Sidney Septimus Ratcliff Annie Reynolds Poard		Bachelor Spinster	Land agent Home duties	26 22	Feilding Feilding	6 years 22 years	Residence of Hart, Feilding, Greytown N.Z.	94/335		24 January 1894	Rev. W. Rouse
645	6 February 1894	John Joseph Dalton Emma Bagust	John Joseph Dalton Emma Bagust 💍 1894/398	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer domestic service	23 21	Martinborough Martinborough	2 years 1 year	House of Brides mother, Martinborough N.Z.	94/331		6 February 1894	Rev. J. Hepburn
646	7 February 1894	John Dochery Esther Wright	John Dockey Esther Wright 💍 1894/400	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmill hand Home duties	21 21	Greytown N.Z. Greytown N.Z.	18 years 2 months	House of Bridegroom's father, Greytown N.Z.	94/333		7 February 1894	Rev. S. J. Gibson
647	8 February 1894	Edwin George Collier Jane Terry	Edwin George Collie Janie Terry 💍 1894/399	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Home duties	28 23	Greytown N.Z. Greytown N.Z.	10 years 1 year	House of the Brides brother, Papawai, Greytown N.Z.	94/332		8 February 1894	Rev. S. J. Gibson
648	20 February 1894	Thomas Frank Valentine Minnie Parish	Thomas Frank Valentine Minnie Parish 💍 1894/1106	Bachelor Spinster	Druggist Tailoress	22 24	Martinborough Martinborough	1 year 24 years	House of the Brides mother, Martinborough N.Z.	94/1040		20 February 1894	Rev. Alex Thomson
649	22 February 1894	John Gaskin Mary Bagust	John Gaskin Mary Bagust 💍 1894/401	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer General Servant	29 22	Martinborough Martinborough	3 months 4 months	House of the Brides mother, Martinborough N.Z.	94/334		22 February 1894	Rev. S. J. Gibson
650	24 March 1894	Jacob Hall Baumber Annie Maria Beard	Jacob Hall Baumber Annie Maria Beards 💍 1894/397	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Home duties	25 23	Greytown N.Z. Greytown N.Z.	2 years 23 years	House of the Brides brother, C. Beard, Greytown N.Z.	94/330		24 March 1894	Rev. C. Murray

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).