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 300

District of Timaru 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	5 January 1894	George Hay Ada Stewart	George Hay Ada Stewart 💍 1894/747	Bachelor Spinster	Hay Spinner	25 19	Timaru Timaru	4 days 19 years	Residence of Mr John Stewart, Timaru	94/745	John Stewart, Father	5 January 1894	Rev. Charles E. Beecroft, Wesleyan Minister
2	18 January 1894	Francis John Rowley Jessie White Byers	Francis John Rowley Jessie White Byers 💍 1894/751	Bachelor Spinster	School Teacher School Teacher	25 23	Timaru Timaru	3 days 19 years	Residence of Mrs Euphemia Byers, Timaru	94/749		18 January 1894	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
3	24 January 1894	Henry Wagstaff Beatrice Mary Smith	Henry Wagstaff Beatrice Bing Smith 💍 1894/749	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	29 17	Timaru Timaru	18 months 2 years	Residence of Rev. Charles Crisp Brown, Timaru	94/747	Thomas Smith, Father	24 January 1894	Rev. Charles Crisp Brown, Baptist Minister
4	5 February 1894	Charles Hisk Jane Elizabeth Stonehouse	Charles Fisk Jane Elizabeth Stonehouse 💍 1894/745	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Tailoress	21 21	Timaru Timaru	8 months 6 months	Registrar's Office, Timaru	94/744		5 February 1894	Thomas Howley, Registrar of Marriages Timaru
5	13 February 1894	Herbert George Smith Agnes Elizabeth Mee	Herbert George Smith Agnes Elizabeth Mee 💍 1894/1199	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep farmer	27 25	Timaru Timaru	3 days 25 years	St. Mary's Episcopalian Church, Timaru	94/954		13 February 1894	Ven. Archdeacon Henry W. Harper, Church of England Minister
6	13 March 1894	Edward Cameron Julia Butcher	Edward Cameron Julia Butcher 💍 1894/1201	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 24	Timaru Timaru	19 years 6 years	St. Mary's Episcopalian Church, Timaru	94/986		13 March 1894	Venerable Archdeacon Henry W. Harper, Church of England Minister
7	12 March 1894	James Clarke Amelia Martha Elizabeth Anderson	James Clarke Amelia Martha Elizabeth Anderson 💍 1894/748	Bachelor Spinster	Tin Smith Tailoress	26 20	Timaru Timaru	26 years 20 years	Wesleyan Church, Timaru	94/746	John Anderson, Father	12 March 1894	Rev. Charles E. Beecroft, Wesleyan Minister
8	19 March 1894	Joseph Grant Mary McCann	Joseph Grant Mary McCann 💍 1894/972	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	53 30	Seadown Seadown	7 years 7 days	Residence of Mr Joseph Grant, Seadown	94/1001		19 March 1894	Rev. John Dickson, Presbyterian Minister
9	20 March 1894	Robert Scarf Emily Booth	Robert Seary Emily Booth 💍 1894/750	Widower Spinster	Butcher Domestic Servant	55 33	Timaru Timaru	35 years 6 months	Residence of Mr Robert Scarf, Timaru	94/748		20 March 1894	Rev. Louis Hurlin, Roman Catholic Clergyman
10	20 March 1894	Bruce Gillies Elizabeth Pringle	Bruce Gillies Elizabeth Pringle 💍 1894/759	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 23	Timaru Gleniti	3 days 18 years	Residence of Mr William Pringle, Gleniti	94/750		20 March 1894	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister

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).