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 1291

District of Auckland 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
445	13 November 1894	Albert William Robins Margaret Agnes Grimstone	Albert William Robins Margaret Agnes Grimstone 💍 1894/2906	Bachelor Widow	Cook	29 32	Auckland Auckland	2 1/2 years 2 years	Registrar's Office Auckland	94/3094		13 November 1894	E. H. Lyons, Registrar
446	13 November 1894	Alfred Edward Gilmore Adeline Violet Kerr Taylor	Alfred Edward Gilmore Adeline Violet Kerr-Taylor 💍 1894/4159	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	29 20	Auckland Mount Albert	4 years 2 years	Church of England, Epsom	94/4181	Sophie L. Kerr, Mother	13 November 1894	Rev. M. E. Gillon, Church of England
447	14 November 1894	Alfred Rambina Hart Henry Jane Hart	Alfred Rainbow Mary Jane Hart 💍 1894/2830	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	31 20	Auckland Auckland	3 1/2 years 20 years	St. Thomas Church	94/3139	George Hart, Father	14 November 1894	Rev. H. R. B. Reid, Church of England
448	15 November 1894	John Quinto Curta Katherine Milia Farley	John Quinto Curta Katherine Farley 💍 1894/2908	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	39 31	East Tamaki Auckland	14 years 31 years	Registrar's Office	94/3096		15 November 1894	S. H. Lyons, Registrar
449	15 November 1894	Robert Geddes Wilson Christina Black	Robert Geddes Christina Black Wilson 💍 1894/3097	Bachelor Spinster	Factory Manager	34 23	Auckland Auckland	11 years 23 years	House of R. S. West	94/3170		15 November 1894	Rev. R. S. West, Presbyterian
450	19 November 1894	Thomas Frederick Downs Martha Jane Shepherd	Thomas Frederick Downs Martha Jane Shepherd 💍 1894/3081	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 25	Toka Toka Auckland	6 years 25 years	Wesleyan Church	94/3178		19 November 1894	Rev. H. J. Williams, Wesleyan
451	19 November 1894	Theodore Next Marion Withy	Theodore West Marion Withy 💍 1894/2819	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	32 28	Fielding Auckland	6 years 10 years	Residence of S. B. Brown	94/3126		19 November 1894	Rev. S. B. Brown, Presbyterian

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).