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 1496

District of Wellington 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
419	22 December 1894	Henry George Young Minnie Leo	Henry George Young Minnie Lee 💍 1894/3344	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	24 19	Wellington Wellington	3 days	Registrar's Office, Wellington	94/3462	George, father	22 December 1894	W. G. Wyatt
420	27 December 1894	Edmund William Parritt Margaret Paterson	Edmund William Porritt Margaret Paterson 💍 1894/3220	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	29 24	Wellington Wellington	6 days years	St. John's Church, Woolcombe Street	94/3514		27 December 1894	Rev. J. Paterson
421	27 December 1894	Harry Lander Margaret Mulcahy	Harry Lander Margaret Mulcahy 💍 1894/3307	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 21	Wellington Wellington	5 days years	St. Mary of the Angels	94/3502		27 December 1894	Very Rev. J. Devoy
422	27 December 1894	Thomas Wickes Letitia Moore	Thomas Wilkes Letitia Moore 💍 1894/3345	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 25	Wellington Wellington	5 days years	Registrar's Office	94/3463		27 December 1894	W. G. Wyatt
423	27 December 1894	William Lebbs Louisa Amelia Blaney	William Tebbs Louisa Amelia Blamey 💍 1894/3234	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 23	Wellington Wellington	3 months 6 days	St. Mark's Church	94/3525		29 December 1894	Rev. R. Coffey
424	27 December 1894	Alfred Ernest Donnell Jeanne Napier Ramsay	Alfred Ernest Donne Jeannie Napier Ramsay 💍 1895/465	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	31 27	Petone Christchurch	years 3 days	Presbyterian Church, Christchurch			27 December 1894	Rev. John Elmslie
425	27 December 1894	George Herbert Langdon Mary Edith Cooke	George Herbert Langdon Mary Edith Cooke 💍 1894/3269	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	32 28	Wellington Wellington	4 days months	Wesley Church, Paremata Street	94/3487		27 December 1894	Rev. W. Baumber
426	27 December 1894	Walter Knapp Ellen Jones	Walter Knapp Ellen Jones 💍 1894/3346	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	21 21	Wellington Wellington	years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	94/3464		27 December 1894	W. G. Wyatt
427	27 December 1894	Edward Salmond Walker Ada Lillian Dwyer	Edward Talfound Walker Ada Lilian Dwyer 💍 1894/3263	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	25 24	Wellington Wellington	3 months	St. Peter's Church	94/3472		27 December 1894	Rev. W. C. Waters
428	27 December 1894	Charles Hooke Lucy Adelaide Bell	Charles Hooke Lucy Adelaide Bell 💍 1895/2916	Bachelor Spinster	Shopman	32 23	Wellington Wellington	years	St. Mark's Church	95/482		27 December 1894	Rev. R. Coffey
429	29 December 1894	Joseph Henry Pedwell Mary Campbell	Joseph Henry Pedwell Mary Campbell 💍 1894/3272 Alexander McPhee Mary Campbell 💍 1894/2364	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	26 19	Lower Hutt Lower Hutt	6 days years	House of Mr. Campbell, Lower Hutt	94/3490	Mr. Campbell, father	29 December 1894	Rev. Andrew Gray

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).