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 654

District of Motueka 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
495	4 April 1894	Edward Gerrish Annie Leonora Sixfus	Edward Gerrish Annie Leonora Sixtus 💍 1894/1578	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 26	Upper Motueka Upper Motueka	12 years 26 years	Registrar's Office, Motueka	94/1561		4 April 1894	Joseph Foord Wilson, Registrar
496	13 April 1894	John Yarrow Emily Brooming Wills	John Farrow Emily Brooming Wills 💍 1894/1582	Bachelor Spinster	Wool scourer	37 25	Upper Motueka Upper Motueka	5 days 25 years	House of Mr. Albert H. Wills	94/1565		13 April 1894	Revd. Richard Harker, Wesleyan Minister
497	25 April 1894	Samuel Bigger Canavan Thirza Boyes	Samuel Breggen Canovan Thirzer Boyes 💍 1894/1584	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Dressmaker	26 22	Motueka Motueka	6 years 22 years	House of Mr. Charles Parker	94/1566		25 April 1894	Revd. Richard Harker, Wesleyan Minister
498	26 April 1894	John Limmer Rosamond Hawken	John Limmer Rosamond Hawken 💍 1894/1585	Widower Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	55 49	Motueka Motueka	38 years 34 years	House of Mr. James Bradley, Motueka	94/1567		26 April 1894	Revd. Richard Harker, Wesleyan Minister
499	17 May 1894	Edward Sydney McNabb Woolf Clymena Jane Drummond	Edward Sydney McNabb Woolf Clymena Jane Drummond 💍 1894/1823	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 21	Sandy Bay Motueka	22 years 2 years	Church of St. Thomas, Motueka	94/1776		17 May 1894	Revd. Joseph Mould Adcock, Minister, Church of England
500	24 May 1894	Frederick Holdert Anne Christina Brereton		Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	26 23	Motueka Ngatimoti	10 years 17 years	Church of St. James, Ngatimoti	94/1564		24 May 1894	Revd. William George Baker, Minister, Church of England
501	25 May 1894	William Schildbauer Mary Elizabeth Gifford	William Schildhauer Mary Elizabeth Gifford 💍 1894/1579	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Housekeeper	35 34	Upper Motueka Upper Motueka	30 years 22 years	Registrar's Office, Motueka	94/1562		25 May 1894	Joseph Foord Wilson, Registrar
502	15 June 1894	Henry Frederick George Sixfus Friederika Sophia Maria Böckmann	Heinrich Friederick George Sixtus Fredrika Sophia Maria Bockmann 💍 1894/1580	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 23	Upper Motueka Upper Motueka	29 years 23 years	Lutheran Church, Sarau	94/1563		15 June 1894	Revd. Wilhelm Friedrich Schwarz, Lutheran Minister
503	25 June 1894	Ernest Hudson Grooby Elizabeth Dinah Martin	Ernest Hudson Grooby Elizabeth Dinah Martin 💍 1894/1586	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 19	Pangatotara Ngatimoti	23 years 12 years	House of Mr. Ernest Hudson Grooby, Pangatotara	94/1568	Charles Martin, Father	25 June 1894	Revd. Richard Harker, Wesleyan 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).