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 1494

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
374	26 November 1894	John Wallaw Helen Douglas Softs	John Wallace Helen Douglas Tofts 💍 1894/3339	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 28	Wellington Wellington	1 year years	Registrars office	94/3457		26 November 1894	W. T. Wyatt
375	27 November 1894	William Edward Weeds Annie Ellen Waterman	William Edward Weeds Annie Ellen Waterman 💍 1894/3222	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	30 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	Home of the Waterman, Majoribanks Street	94/3536		27 November 1894	Rev. J. K. Elliott
376	27 November 1894	David Thomson Eliza Gibson	David Thomson Eliza Gibson 💍 1894/3223	Bachelor Spinster	Steward	21 19	Wellington Wellington	years years	Home of Miss Gibson, Broadway Terrace	94/3539	Georgina Frances Gibson, mother	27 November 1894	Rev. J. K. Elliott
377	28 November 1894	John Jenkins Marion Adelina Laerken	John Jenkins Marain Aderine Lorentzen 💍 1894/3340	Widower Spinster	Plasterer	45 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office	94/3458		28 November 1894	W. T. Wyatt
378	28 November 1894	Henry Burton Jessie Snaen	Henry Burton Jessie Alice Smerdon 💍 1894/3266	Bachelor Spinster	Barman	23 20	Wellington Wellington	years 18 months	Wesleyan Parsonage, Taranaki Street	94/3484		28 November 1894	Rev. W. Baumber
379	29 November 1894	William Thaddick Annie Constance McCanny	William Shaddick Annie Constance McCleary 💍 1894/3341	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	21 19	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office, Wellington	94/3459	John Patrick McCanny, father	29 November 1894	W. T. Wyatt
380	29 November 1894	Louis Staples Maud Sarah Ann Churchill	Louis Staples Maud Sarah Ann Churchill 💍 1894/3352	Bachelor Spinster	Tailors Cutter	22 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Peters Church	94/3469		29 November 1894	Rev. W. C. Waters
381	3 December 1894	George Thomas Mason Eva Elizabeth Hand	George Thomas Mason Eva Elizabeth Hand 💍 1894/3353	Bachelor Spinster	Fire Insurance Manager	25 25	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Peters Church	94/3471		3 December 1894	Rev. W. C. Waters
382	3 December 1894	George Edward Manson Laura Kate Manning	George Edward Manson Laura Kate Manning 💍 1894/3275	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 20	Kaiwarra Petone	years 6 months	House of Mrs. Manning, Petone	94/3492	Mary Anne Manning, mother	3 December 1894	Rev. A. Thomson
383	4 December 1894	William Henry Charles Dickens Clara Augusta Francis	William Henry Charles Vickers Clara Augusta Francis 💍 1894/3303	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	29 27	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	St. Marks Church	94/3521		4 December 1894	Rev. W. C. Waters
384	4 December 1894	Thomas Walter Hazelwood Ellender Clark	Thomas Walter Hazelwood Ellender Robertson Clark 💍 1894/3274	Bachelor Spinster	Bookbinder	24 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Miss Clark, Rhodes Street	94/3474		4 December 1894	Rev. W. C. Wait
385	5 December 1894	William Henry Bott Mary Harper	William Henry Bott Mary Harper 💍 1894/3288	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	22 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	Home of Bridegroom, Revans Street	94/3506		5 December 1894	Rev. W. Shiner
386	6 December 1894	John Castle Annie Ayres	John Castle Annie Ayres 💍 1894/3219	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	27 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	Home of Mr. Ayres, Coromandel Street	94/3533		6 December 1894	Rev. James Guy
387	7 December 1894	William James Durrant Mary Ann White	William James Durrant Mary Ann White 💍 1894/3231	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 20	Wellington Wellington	years years	Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street	94/3545	George White, father	7 December 1894	Rev. R. J. Murray
388	8 December 1894	Thomas Walter Ellen Mary Gas	Thomas Walter Ellen Mary Gore 💍 1894/3297	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	40 27	Karori Wellington	4 months years	St. Pauls Cathedral	94/3576		8 December 1894	Rev. J. H. Sprott

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).