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 626

District of Wellington 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
207	20 June 1894	Arthur Hancock Alice Jane Power	Arthur Hancock Alice Jane Power 💍 1894/1443	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	22 22	Wellington Wellington	10 days 4 days	Registrar's Office, Wellington	94/1486		20 June 1894	Mr. T. Wyatt
208	20 June 1894	Arthur Nayler Elizabeth Harris	Arthur Naylor Elizabeth Harris 💍 1894/1444	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	22 23	Wellington Wellington	4 days 4 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	94/1487		20 June 1894	Mr. T. Wyatt
209	21 June 1894	William Rowlands Emily Theresa Bannister	William Rowlands Emilie Theresa Bannister 💍 1894/1519	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	44 23	Wellington Johnsonville	10 days 2 years	St. John's Church	94/1495		21 June 1894	Ven. Archdeacon Fancourt
210	22 June 1894	Patrick Smart Mary Healy	Patrick Stuart Mary Healy 💍 1894/1811	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	33 22	Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 days	St. Mary of the Angels	94/1788		22 June 1894	Very Rev. T. D. Devoy
211	27 June 1894	George Warren Christina Robinson	George Warren Christina Robertson 💍 1894/1541	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	29 24	Wellington Wellington	2 years 2 years	House of Bridegroom, Martin Square	94/1524		27 June 1894	Rev. W. Baumber
212	28 June 1894	Henry Patrick Clarkson Annie O'Casqui	Henry Patrick Clarkson Annie O Sasqui 💍 1894/1812	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	27 45	Wellington Wellington	2 years 4 days	St. Mary of the Angels	94/1789		28 June 1894	Very Rev. T. D. Devoy
213	28 June 1894	John William Smith Amelia Rebecca Lamb	John William Smith Amelia Rebecka Lamb 💍 1894/1445	Widower Spinster	Settler	39 19	Wellington Wellington	4 days 4 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	94/1488	Eliza Lamb, mother	28 June 1894	Mr. T. Wyatt
214	28 June 1894	Charles Parker Elizabeth Lucy Green	Charles Parker Elizabeth Lucy Onyon 💍 1894/2794	Bachelor Spinster	Mercer	29 23	Wellington Wellington	4 months 1 year	House of Lucy Green, Boulcott Street	94/2872		28 June 1894	Rev. J. Paterson
215	29 June 1894	Frederick William Peet Annie Dunn	Frederick William Peet Annie Dunn 💍 1894/1446	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 22	Wellington Wellington	1 week 1 week	Registrar's Office, Wellington	94/1489		29 June 1894	Mr. T. Wyatt

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).