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 1606

District of Greymouth Quarter ending 31 December 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
55	3 November 1894	John Thomas Whittaker Hannah Maria Alexander	John Thomas Whittaker Hannah Maria Alexander 💍 1894/3958	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 years 21 years	Fairview Fairview	1 1/2 years 10 years	Residence of Mr. John Thomas Whittaker, Fairview	94/3768	3 November 1894	Rev. Charles E. Beecroft, Wesleyan Minister
56	6 November 1894	William Samuel Nelson Margaret McTaggart	William Samuel Nelson Margaret McTaggart 💍 1894/3464	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Shunter	26 years 23 years	Greymouth Greymouth	6 months 3 days	Residence of Mr. William Samuel Nelson, Greymouth	94/3769	6 November 1894	Rev. Charles E. Beecroft, Wesleyan Minister
57	13 November 1894	Ernest Shaw Sarah Meredith	Ernest Shaw Sarah Meredith 💍 1894/3461	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 years 23 years	Kingsdown Greymouth	3 months 3 months	Registrar's Office	94/3763	13 November 1894	Thomas Hawley, Registrar of Marriages, Greymouth
58	16 November 1894	Bateman Thomas Missen Margaret Elizabeth Normanby	Bateman Thomas Missen Margaret Elizabeth Normanby 💍 1894/3436	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist Compositor	29 years 25 years	Greymouth Blenheim	2 years 20 years	Episcopalian Church, Blenheim	94/3761	16 November 1894	Ven. Archdeacon Thomas Samuel Grace, Church of England Clergyman
59	1 December 1894	Simon MacKenzie Frances Cotter	Simon MacKenzie Frances Cotter 💍 1894/3877	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	35 years 25 years	Greymouth Dunedin	10 years 11 months	Residence of Mr. Peter Shea, Dunedin	94/4115	1 December 1894	Rev. Patrick Lynch, Roman Catholic Priest
60	8 December 1894	Frederick Alexander Grant Geraldine Alberta Taylor	Frederick Alexander Grant Geraldine Alberta Tayler 💍 1894/3536	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 years 22 years	Greymouth Dunsandel	5 months 7 days	Episcopalian Church, Dunsandel	94/3732	8 December 1894	Rev. Edwin Whitehouse, Church of England Minister
61	10 December 1894	John Alexander Moffat Annie Russell	John Alexander Moffat Annie Russell 💍 1894/3462	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Cleaner	24 years 23 years	Greymouth Greymouth	2 months 3 Weeks	Registrar's Office, Greymouth	94/3766	10 December 1894	Thomas Hawley, Registrar of Marriages, Greymouth
62	13 December 1894	George Strachan Iris Minnie Cassels	George Strachan Iris Minnie Cassels 💍 1894/3466	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	24 years 21 years	Greymouth Greymouth	18 years 2 years	Roman Catholic Presbytery, Greymouth	94/3772	13 December 1894	Rev. Louis Hurlui, Roman Catholic Priest
63	18 December 1894	Joseph Ferguson Linnie Jackson	Joseph Ferguson Jeannie Jackson 💍 1894/3558	Bachelor Spinster	Tram Driver	32 years 34 years	Greymouth Pancana	3 days 14 days	Residence of Rev. William Gillies, Greymouth	94/3776	18 December 1894	Rev. William Gillies, 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).