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 584

District of Feilding Quarter ending 30 June 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
412	2 April 1894	William McDougall Emily Worsfold	William McDougall Emily Worsfold 💍 1894/1406	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 24	Waituna West Feilding	12 years 15 years	Church of England, Feilding	94/1353		2 April 1894	A. S. Innes Jones, Feilding
413	21 April 1894	Frederick William Legg Kate Grantham	Frederick William Legg Kate Grantham 💍 1894/1424	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	26 18	Feilding Halcombe	2½ years 3 days	Residence of W. S. Poole, Feilding	94/1349	Charles Thomas Grantham, father	21 April 1894	George Clement, Feilding
414	21 April 1894	Frederic Danthorpe Nellie Parr	Frederic Fanthorpe Nellie Parr 💍 1894/1416	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinetmaker	25 21	Feilding Feilding	6 years 21 years	Residence of James Danthorpe, Fowlers	94/1362		21 April 1894	W. S. Birks, Fowlers
415	23 April 1894	Matthew Albert Belfit Mary Evans	Mathew Albert Belfit Mary Evans 💍 1894/1403	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	29 27	Feilding Feilding	20 years 27 years	Residence of Mrs. A. Evans, Feilding	94/1350		23 April 1894	George Clement, Feilding
416	1 May 1894	William James Beard Catherine Stringer	William James Beard Catherine Stringer 💍 1894/1411	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 18	Fowlers Feilding	5 years 18 years	Residence of E. Stringer, Feilding	94/1358		1 May 1894	A. M. Murray, Feilding
417	2 May 1894	George Henry Gurrin Lydia Barn Harbour Kilgour	George Henry Currin Lydia Barron Harbour Kilgour 💍 1894/1318	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 29	Kiwitea Kiwitea	16 years 8 years	Residence of David Kilgour, Kiwitea	94/1369		2 May 1894	W. Stewart, Kiwitea
418	9 May 1894	Robert Byers Haswell Jane Fagan	Robert Byers Haswell Jane Fagan 💍 1894/1410	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	26 26	Feilding Palmerston North	3 months 3 days	Residence of H. M. Murray, Feilding	94/1357		9 May 1894	A. M. Murray, Feilding
419	10 May 1894	Edgar Burdett Sarah Bowler	Edgar Burdett Sarah Bowler 💍 1894/1412	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	23 20	Feilding Feilding	2 years 20 years	Residence of R. Bowler, Feilding	94/1359	Richard Bowler, father	10 May 1894	W. H. Judkins, Feilding
420	17 May 1894	George Henry Beard Alice Susan Haycock	George Henry Beard Alice Susan Haycock 💍 1894/1415	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 23	Fowlers Fowlers	5 years 7 years	Residence of Walter Haycock, Fowlers	94/1361		17 May 1894	Thomas Richards, Fowlers
421	17 May 1894	Arthur Wallis Tyerman Harriet Ann Newell	Arthur Walter Tyerman Harriet Ann Newell 💍 1894/1405	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 26	Ohuigaiti Makino	3 days 16 years	Residence of Charles Newell, Makino	94/1352		17 May 1894	George Clement, Feilding

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).