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 1074

District of Wairau 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
28	24 July 1894	Thomas Williams Fanny Maria White	Thomas Williams Fanny Maria White 💍 1894/3938	Bachelor Spinster	Shearer none	31 19	Kaituna Kaituna	14 years 17 years	Registrar's Office Blenheim	94/2549	Mother	24 July 1894	E. M. Pasley, Registrar
29	30 July 1894	John Thomas Murphy Mary de Marchant Carey	John Thomas Murphy Mary Le Marchant Carey 💍 1894/2664	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 27	Spring Creek Blenheim	30 years 10 years	W. Carey's Residence, Maxwell Road Blenheim	94/2857		30 July 1894	Rev. J. McNamara
30	7 August 1894	Augustus Burke Mary Le Bas	Augustus Burke Mary Le Bas 💍 1894/2505	Widower Widow	Labourer	55 47	Grovetown Blenheim	12 years 14 years	Registrar's Office Blenheim	94/2530		7 August 1894	E. M. Pasley, Registrar
31	10 August 1894	William Mears Mary Jellyman	William Mears Mary Jellyman 💍 1894/2509	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 19	Springlands Blenheim	10 years 19 years	James Jellyman's Residence, Grove Road Blenheim	94/2534	James Jellyman, father	10 August 1894	Rev. W. O. Robb
32	10 August 1894	John William Hisby May Bartlett	John William Kirby May Bartlett 💍 1894/2802	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Painter	25 22	Blenheim Blenheim	17 years 22 years	Church of the Nativity, Blenheim	94/2903		10 August 1894	Rev. T. S. Grace
33	20 August 1894	Edward Earl Bell Frances Annie Slow	Edward Earl Bell Frances Annie Slow 💍 1894/2506	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 19	Wairau Valley Wairau Valley	4 years 19 years	Registrar's Office Blenheim	94/2551	Ann Slow, Mother	20 August 1894	E. M. Pasley, Registrar
34	23 August 1894	John Maher Kate O'Brien	John Maher Kate O'Brien 💍 1894/2665	Widower Spinster	Farmer	38 28	Kaituna Kaituna	38 years 3 years	Roman Catholic Church Blenheim	94/2858		23 August 1894	Rev. J. McNamara
35	3 September 1894	John Powell Mary Maria Bartlett	John Powell Mary Maria Bartlett 💍 1894/2803	Bachelor Spinster	Waggoner	34 21	Wairau Valley Wairau Valley	15 years 21 years	M. P. Bartlett's Residence, Wairau Valley	94/2904		3 September 1894	Rev. T. S. Grace
36	19 September 1894	Charles Edward Sorman Louisa O'Donnell	Charles Edward Sowman Louisa O'Donnell 💍 1894/2508	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 25	Blenheim Blenheim	16 years 9 years	Registrar's Office Blenheim	94/2553		19 September 1894	E. W. Pasley, Registrar

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).