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 388

District of Riverton 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
389	17 January 1894	Adam Wilson Lindsay Isabella McDougall	Adam Wilson Lindsay Isabella McDougall 💍 1894/877	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 25	Lumsden Plains Fairfax	20 years 25 years	House of Mr. Chas. McDougall, Fairfax	94/955		19 January 1894	Revd. Robt. Ewan, Presbyterian
390	20 January 1894	Joseph Butler Annie O'Brien	Joseph Butler Annie OBrien 💍 1894/4184	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	27 23	Drummond Drummond	1 year 3 years	The School House, Otautau	94/2171		20 January 1894	Revd. M. Walsh, Roman Catholic
391	6 February 1894	Duncan Campbell Mary More	Duncan Campbell McKenzie Mary More 💍 1894/880	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	23 23	Invercargill Riverton	3 days 2 1/2 years	House of Mr. James Moss, South Riverton	94/957		6 February 1894	Revd. Thos. Neave, Presbyterian
392	12 February 1894	Joseph Pallek Mary Stanton	Joseph Pallet Mary Steaton 💍 1894/882 Joseph Hill Mary Condon 💍 1895/791 Joseph Scarlet Mary Caird 💍 1894/61	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 17	Otautau Bush Otautau Bush	13 years 8 years	Office of Registrar, Riverton	94/959	Joseph Stanton, father of Mary Stanton	12 February 1894	Lee Eyes, Registrar, Riverton
393	19 February 1894	Arthur Correfield Isabella Meek	Arthur Eversfield Featherstone Isabella Meek 💍 1894/878	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	26 28	Gropers Bush Fairfax	4 years 7 years	House of Mr. Robt. Meek, Fairfax	94/956		19 February 1894	Revd. Robt. Ewan, Presbyterian
394	27 February 1894	William Frederick Lee Agnes Popham	William Frederick Lee Agnes Popham 💍 1894/883	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	21 16	Oriputhi Oriputhi	2 years 16 years	Office of Registrar, Riverton	94/960		27 February 1894	Lee Eyes, Registrar
395	16 March 1894	John Mackay Helen Carmichael	John Mackay Carran Helen Carmichael 💍 1894/881	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	32 25	Otautau Gummie's Bush	4 years 25 years	House of Mr. Jas. Carmichael, Gummie's Bush	94/958		16 March 1894	Revd. Chas. Foster, Wesleyan
396	17 March 1894	Alexander Inglis Agnes Johnston	Alexander Inglis Agnes Johnston 💍 1894/876	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	28 27	Arrowtown Johnston, Gropers Bush	2 years 27 years	House of Mr. W. Johnston, Gropers Bush	94/954		17 March 1894	Revd. Thos. Neave, Presbyterian

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).