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 868

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 September 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
289	10 July 1894	Clarence Eugene Potter Minnie Stewart	David Buchan Smith Minnie Stewart 💍 1894/2887	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 22	Auckland Auckland	21 years 22 years	Registrar's Office	94/2180		10 July 1894	S. H. Hoyes, Registrar
290	10 July 1894	James Walter Sinton Elizabeth Frances Gunn	James Walter Sinton Elizabeth Frances Gunn 💍 1894/2811	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 19	Hobsonville Hobsonville	26 years 6 years	House of R. J. Sinton, 6 Pitt Street	94/2191	Father	10 July 1894	Rev. M. S. West, Presbyterian
291	11 July 1894	George Arthur March Emily Stewart Dunn	George Arthur March Emily Mary Dunn 💍 1894/2154	Bachelor Spinster	Chainman	42 28	Auckland Auckland	25 years 20 years	House of Rev. R. S. Macmin, Selwyn Road, Ponsonby	94/2210		11 July 1894	Rev. R. S. Macmin, Presbyterian
292	11 July 1894	Albert Labey Whitcombe Agnes Barclay Donaldson	Albert Jabez Whitcombe Agnes Barclay Donaldson 💍 1894/2140	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	27 21	Auckland Auckland	20 years 2 years	House of Rev. G. Roul, Vermont Street, Ponsonby	94/2218		11 July 1894	Rev. M. S. Potter, Primitive Methodist
293	13 July 1894	Denis Joseph Whelan Sarah Ann Robb	Denis Joseph Whelan Sarah Ann Robb 💍 1894/2128	Bachelor Spinster	Coachsmith	25 23	Auckland Auckland	2 years 3 years	All Saints Church, Ponsonby	94/2253		13 July 1894	Rev. M. Calder, Church of England
294	14 July 1894	Theophilus Murphy Jane Burness		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 22	Auckland Auckland	15 years 22 years	St. Thomas Church, Freeman's Bay	94/2226		14 July 1894	Rev. M. H. Burke, Church of England
295	17 July 1894	William Godfrey Collins Hannah Hannah Richards	William Godfrey Collins Hannah Maria Richards 💍 1894/4029	Bachelor Spinster	Stockman	23 27	Cambridge Auckland	23 years 27 years	House of Rev. H. Richards, Parnell	94/2889		17 July 1894	Rev. A. Carrick, Presbyterian

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 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).