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 658

District of Nelson Quarter ending 30 June 1894 Registrar Hugh Calders

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

2 April 1894

Albert Edward Lockyer
Hannah Remnant

Albert Edward Lockyer
Hannah Remnant
💍 1894/2252

Bachelor
Spinster

Proprietor
Servant

21
22

Brook St Valley Nelson
Brook St Valley Nelson

21 years
3 years

Residence of William Lockyer, Brook Street

94/2143

Rev. James Bray, Baptist Minister, Nelson

No	18
Date of Notice	2 April 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Edward Lockyer	Hannah Remnant
	💍 1894/2252
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Proprietor	Servant
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Brook St Valley Nelson	Brook St Valley Nelson
Length of Residence	21 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Residence of William Lockyer, Brook Street
Folio	94/2143
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Bray, Baptist Minister, Nelson

5 April 1894

Emanuel Stagg
Welhemine Maria Dorothia Fanselow

Emmanuel Stagg
Welhemine Maria Dorothea Fanselow
💍 1894/1549

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

27
25

Hope
Hope

27 years
25 years

Residence of Charles Silcok, Brightwater

94/1581

Rev. H. G. Baker, Church of England Minister, Brightwater

No	19
Date of Notice	5 April 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Emanuel Stagg	Welhemine Maria Dorothia Fanselow
BDM Match (95%)	Emmanuel Stagg	Welhemine Maria Dorothea Fanselow
	💍 1894/1549
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	27	25
Dwelling Place	Hope	Hope
Length of Residence	27 years	25 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Charles Silcok, Brightwater
Folio	94/1581
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. G. Baker, Church of England Minister, Brightwater

7 April 1894

William Raymond Hunt
Lucy Challis

William Raymond Hunt
Lucy Challies
💍 1894/1550

Bachelor
Spinster

Run Holder

31
27

Wantwood Wakefield
Entstone Waimea West

31 years
27 years

St Michaels Church, Waimea West

94/1582

Rev. H. G. Baker, Church of England Minister, Waimea West

No	20
Date of Notice	7 April 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Raymond Hunt	Lucy Challis
BDM Match (96%)	William Raymond Hunt	Lucy Challies
	💍 1894/1550
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Run Holder
Age	31	27
Dwelling Place	Wantwood Wakefield	Entstone Waimea West
Length of Residence	31 years	27 years
Marriage Place	St Michaels Church, Waimea West
Folio	94/1582
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. G. Baker, Church of England Minister, Waimea West

10 April 1894

Alfred Lynch
Eleanor Mary Wells

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Dressmaker

30
22

Trafalgar Street Nelson
The Port Nelson

14 days
6 months

All Saints Church, Vanguard Street, Nelson

Not Solemnized. See letter attached.

Rev. W. F. Connor, Church of England Minister, Nelson

No	21
Date of Notice	10 April 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Lynch	Eleanor Mary Wells
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Dressmaker
Age	30	22
Dwelling Place	Trafalgar Street Nelson	The Port Nelson
Length of Residence	14 days	6 months
Marriage Place	All Saints Church, Vanguard Street, Nelson
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	Not Solemnized. See letter attached.
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. F. Connor, Church of England Minister, Nelson

11 April 1894

Joseph Hewson
Mary Gertrude Roberts

Joseph Hewson
Mary Gertrude Roberts
💍 1894/1565

Widower
Spinster

Clerk in Holy Orders

42
22

Stoke
Stoke

3 days
6 months

St. Barnabas Church, Stoke, Nelson

94/1573

Rev. A. C. Knight, Church of England Minister, Nelson

No	22
Date of Notice	11 April 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Hewson	Mary Gertrude Roberts
	💍 1894/1565
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Clerk in Holy Orders
Age	42	22
Dwelling Place	Stoke	Stoke
Length of Residence	3 days	6 months
Marriage Place	St. Barnabas Church, Stoke, Nelson
Folio	94/1573
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. C. Knight, Church of England Minister, Nelson

11 April 1894

Jonathan Livick
Annora Priscilla Jane Armstrong

Jonathan Livick
Annora Pricilla Jane Armstrong
💍 1894/2253

Bachelor
Spinster

Mechanical Engineer

23
22

Milton Street Nelson
St Vincent Street Nelson

23 years
3 months

Residence of Mrs. Eliza Livick, Milton Street

94/2144

Rev. Thomas Bray, Baptist Minister, Nelson

No	23
Date of Notice	11 April 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Jonathan Livick	Annora Priscilla Jane Armstrong
BDM Match (98%)	Jonathan Livick	Annora Pricilla Jane Armstrong
	💍 1894/2253
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mechanical Engineer
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Milton Street Nelson	St Vincent Street Nelson
Length of Residence	23 years	3 months
Marriage Place	Residence of Mrs. Eliza Livick, Milton Street
Folio	94/2144
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Bray, Baptist Minister, Nelson

16 April 1894

Edward Hooker Edwards
Ellen Waterhouse

Edward Hooker Edwards
Ellen Waterhouse
💍 1894/1588

Edward Henry Ford
Elizabeth Waterhouse
💍 1894/2573

Widower
Spinster

Butcher
Servant

50
30

Weka Street Nelson
Collingwood Street Nelson

6 months
30 years

Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Nelson

94/1570

The Registrar of Marriages, Nelson

No	24
Date of Notice	16 April 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Hooker Edwards	Ellen Waterhouse
	💍 1894/1588
BDM Match (61%)	Edward Henry Ford	Elizabeth Waterhouse
	💍 1894/2573
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Butcher	Servant
Age	50	30
Dwelling Place	Weka Street Nelson	Collingwood Street Nelson
Length of Residence	6 months	30 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Nelson
Folio	94/1570
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	The Registrar of Marriages, Nelson

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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 1908. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).