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 1170

District of Quinam 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	1 July 1894	Charles Ryder Ellen Roach	Charles Ryder Ellen Roach 💍 1894/2531	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	38 25	Landsborough Claremont	18 months 7 years	Residence of Mr. Paul Roach, Claremont	94/2710		1 July 1894	Rev. Charles E. Beecroft, Wesleyan Minister
35	6 August 1894	Alfred Stevens Phillis Sabiston	Alfred Stevens Phillis Sabiston 💍 1894/3995	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 23	Quinam Quinam	16 years 18 years	Residence of Mr. Robert Waugh, Quinam	94/2714		6 August 1894	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
36	15 August 1894	Thomas Muir Margaret Doyle	Thomas Muir Margaret Doyle 💍 1894/2529	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	31 20	Quinam Adair	9 days 9 days	Roman Catholic Presbytery, Quinam	94/2708	James Doyle, Father	15 August 1894	Rev. Louis Hurlin, Roman Catholic Priest
37	16 August 1894	Frederick Albert Harrison Jessie Annie Smith	Frederick Albert Harrison Jessie Annie Smith 💍 1894/3994	Bachelor Spinster	Expressman	28 21	Quinam Quinam	28 years 18 years	Residence of Mr. Charles Hackett, Quinam	94/2713		16 August 1894	Rev. Charles Crisp Brown, Baptist Minister
38	20 August 1894	William Lickis Ellen Goodman	William Lickis Ellen Goodman 💍 1894/2563	Bachelor Widow	Mariner	60 60	Quinam Quinam	35 years 31 years	Residence of Mr. William Lickis, Quinam	94/2711		20 August 1894	Rev. Charles E. Beecroft, Wesleyan Minister
39	21 August 1894	Gilbert Alexander Harriett Elizabeth Archer	Gilbert Alexander Harriet Elizabeth Archer 💍 1894/3997	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Fireman	26 22	Quinam Waimate	16 months 2 months	Wesleyan Church, Waimate	94/2717		21 August 1894	Rev. Daniel James Murray, Wesleyan Minister
40	22 August 1894	Samuel McBride Frances Elizabeth Jenkins	Samuel McBride Frances Elizabeth Jenkins 💍 1894/3996	Widower Spinster	Stone Mason	45 28	Quinam Quinam	20 years 7 years	Residence of Mr. Samuel McBride, Waititi Road	94/2715		22 August 1894	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
41	27 August 1894	Edward Henry Ford Elizabeth Waterhouse	Edward Henry Ford Elizabeth Waterhouse 💍 1894/2573 Edward Hooker Edwards Ellen Waterhouse 💍 1894/1588	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	26 26	The Levels Quinam	3 years 10 years	Residence of Mr. John Waterhouse, Quinam	94/2712		27 August 1894	Rev. Charles E. Beecroft, Wesleyan Minister
42	28 August 1894	John Holmes Ellis Elizabeth Mary Sullivan	John Holmes Ellis Elizabeth Mary Sullivan 💍 1894/2528	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	31 19	Quinam Quinam	31 years 1 year	Registrar's Office, Quinam	94/2707	John Sullivan, Father	28 August 1894	Thomas Howley, Registrar of Marriages, Quinam
43	3 September 1894	William Henry Townrow Ruth McLauchlan	William Henry Townrow Ruth McLauchlan 💍 1894/4221	Widower Spinster	Storeman	38 24	Quinam Ruapuna	6 years 2 months	Residence of Mr. James McLauchlan, Ashburton	94/2606		3 September 1894	Rev. Alexander Blake, Presbyterian 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).