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 1092

District of Nelson 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
34	3 July 1894	William Allan Catherine Euphemia Stanley	William Allan Catherine Ferguson 💍 1894/2548	Bachelor Spinster	Cattle dealer Domestic Servant	34 33	Collingwood Bishopdale, Bridge Street, Nelson	34 years 6 years	The Residence of Walter Radcliffe	94/2576		3 July 1894	R. F. Macnicol, Presbyterian Minister
35	18 July 1894	Walter Hiel Chamberlain Bertha Knapp	Waldo Hill Chamberlain Bertha Knapp 💍 1894/2549	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	32 20	Nelson Harley Street, Nelson	1 year 4 days	William Henry Knapp	94/2577	William Henry Knapp, father	13 July 1894	R. F. Macnicol, Presbyterian Minister
36	24 July 1894	George Daniel Talbot Alice May Osborne	George Daniel Talbot Alice May Osborne 💍 1894/2545	Bachelor Spinster	Cab driver	20 22	Vanguard Street, Nelson Reithiel Hill, Port Nelson	7 years 10 years	The Residence of Bayne Osborne	94/2573	Isabella Amelia Talbot, mother; Archy England, father	24 July 1894	R. F. Cachranaille, Church of England Minister
37	24 July 1894	George Stirling Macnover Emily Henrietta Haines	George Girling Butcher Emily Henrietta Haines 💍 1894/2555	Bachelor Spinster	Journalist Housekeeper	33 23	Coach & Horses Hotel, Trafalgar Street, Nelson Maitai Bank, Nelson	3 days 3 days	The Residence of Manuka Street	94/2582		24 July 1894	J. J. Mahony, Roman Catholic Priest
38	6 August 1894	Donald Mudgfield Linkhorn Laura May Duncis	Oswald Windfield Linkhorn Laura May Francois 💍 1894/2552	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Domestic Servant	21 21	Stoke Haven Road, Nelson	8 months 8 years	The Residence of Daniel Talbot	94/2579		6 August 1894	R. F. Macnicol, Presbyterian Minister
39	13 August 1894	Charles Robert Harley Alice Kerr	Charles Robert Harley Alice Kerr 💍 1894/2553	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer	24 24	West Nelson Washington Valley, Nelson	20 years 21 days	Church Hill	94/2580		13 August 1894	R. F. Macnicol, Presbyterian Minister
40	21 August 1894	James Burston Agnes Maria Hogg	James Burston Agnes Maria Hogg 💍 1894/2543	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer	33 22	Collingwood Street, Nelson Collingwood Street, Nelson	7 years 22 years	Church of England, Trafalgar Square	94/2591		21 August 1894	F. W. Kempthorne, Church of England 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).