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 250

District of Ashburton 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
833	12 January 1894	William Henry Story Mary Helena Comming	William Henry Story Mary Helena Crummery 💍 1894/1061	Widower Spinster	Stockman	38 29	Ashburton Ashburton	14 days 4 days	Roman Catholic Church at Ashburton	94/1046	12 January 1894	Revd. J. J. O'Donnell
834	18 January 1894	John Robb Lilly King	John Robb Lilly King 💍 1894/598	Widower Widow	Blacksmith Domestic Servant	56 39	Wheatstone Ashburton	14 days 6 months	Presbyterian Church at Ashburton	94/619	18 January 1894	Revd. George B. Inglis
835	19 January 1894	Robert James Moore Rosetta Elizabeth March	Robert James Moore Rosetta Elizabeth Marsh 💍 1894/602	Bachelor Spinster	Coachman Parlourmaid	34 29	Longbeach Longbeach	7 years 12 years	Presbyterian Church at Dinedale	94/620	19 January 1894	Revd. A. Blake
836	6 February 1894	James Waring Annie Montgomery Butler	James Wareing Annie Montgomery Butler 💍 1894/599	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 22	Ashburton Ashburton	3 weeks 6 weeks	Presbyterian Manse Ashburton	94/618	6 February 1894	Revd. George B. Inglis
837	2 March 1894	George Rees Rosa Brock	George Rees Rosa Brock 💍 1894/596	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	22 22	Ashburton Ashburton	3 days 3 days	Registrar's Office Ashburton	94/615	2 March 1894	J. Ward, Registrar
838	5 March 1894	Hugh Wilson Emma B. Lambie	Hugh Wilson Emma Buchanan Lambie 💍 1894/595	Bachelor Spinster	Bacon curer	37 23	Kyle Kyle	3 days 12 years	Private Dwelling of John Lambie at Kyle	94/614	5 March 1894	Revd. Grant
839	5 March 1894	David Kerr Elizabeth Kennedy	David Kerr Elizabeth Kennedy 💍 1894/601	Bachelor Widow	Contractor	32 33	Winslow Ashburton	3 years 1 year	Presbyterian Manse	94/619	5 March 1894	Revd. G. B. Inglis
840	10 March 1894	William John Thompson Margaret Mood	William John Thompson Margaret Wood 💍 1894/597	Bachelor Widow	Contractor	29 21	Winslow Winslow	3 years 4 years	Registrar's Office Ashburton	94/616	10 March 1894	J. Ward, Registrar
841	24 March 1894	Bartholomew Sheehan Mary Breen	Bartholomew Sheehan Mary Breen 💍 1894/2086	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 18	Rangitata Hinds	25 years 6 years	Roman Catholic Church at Ashburton	94/2163	24 March 1894	Revd. J. J. O'Donnell

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).