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 1061

District of Wellington 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
261	13 August 1894	Thomas Carr Annie Hamilton	Thomas Carr Annie Hamilton Lauchlan 💍 1894/2330	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	29 23	Wellington Wellington	5 days years	Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace	94/2506		13 August 1894	Rev. J. K. Elliott
262	14 August 1894	John White Sarah Maria Jones	John White Sarah Maria Jones 💍 1894/2660	Widower Widow	Labourer	30 36	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Mary of the Angels	94/2854		14 August 1894	Rev. W. Goggan
263	14 August 1894	Stephen Ede Henrietta Brunetti	Stephen Ede Henrietta Burnetti 💍 1894/2658	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 28	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Mary of the Angels	94/2852		14 August 1894	Very Rev. J. Devoy
264	15 August 1894	Thomas Quinlivan Honora Macamough	Thomas Quinlivan Honora McDonough 💍 1894/2659	Widower Spinster	Dealer	49 40	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	St. Mary of the Angels	94/2853		15 August 1894	Very Rev. J. Devoy
265	15 August 1894	Richard Corich Margaret Ann Mackinnon	Richard Couch Margaret Ann Mackinnon 💍 1894/2279	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	40 29	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	94/2477		15 August 1894	W. L. Wyatt
266	15 August 1894	Alfred Mahony Sarah Lingard	Alfred Daniel Mahony Sarah Lingard 💍 1894/2280	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	26 25	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	94/2478		15 August 1894	W. L. Wyatt
267	15 August 1894	Richard Suchland Eliza Martin	Richard Swaysland Eliza Martin 💍 1894/2282	Bachelor Spinster	Milkman	26 20	Lower Hutt Wellington	years years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	94/2479	David Martin, father	15 August 1894	W. L. Wyatt
268	15 August 1894	James Remington Betsy Hanson	James Remington Betsy Hansen 💍 1894/2331	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	31 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mrs. Reissule, Courtenay Place	94/2507		15 August 1894	Rev. J. K. Elliott
269	16 August 1894	Thomas Horne Wilson Jeannie Munro	Thomas Horne Wilson Jeannie Munro 💍 1894/2396 Thomas Thomson Jessie Munro 💍 1895/3128	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	33 22	Wellington Wellington	6 months 6 months	House of Mr. Peter Wilson, Brougham Street	94/2526		16 August 1894	Rev. C. Dallaston
270	16 August 1894	John Graham Ellen Orchard Heard	John Graham Ellen Orchard Heard 💍 1894/2405	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	23 23	Wellington Wellington	1 week 1 month	Wesley Church, Taranaki Street	94/2512		16 August 1894	Rev. W. Baumber
271	16 August 1894	Edgar Ward Mary Carrow	Edgar Ward May Carrow 💍 1894/2725	Bachelor Spinster	Ledger	29 22	Wellington Wellington	1 month 1 year	St. Paul's	94/2999		16 August 1894	Rev. J. H. Term
272	16 August 1894	Louis Andersen Margaret Martin	Louis Anderson Margaret Martin 💍 1894/2283	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	34 30	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	94/2480		16 August 1894	W. L. Wyatt
273	18 August 1894	Alfred Ainsworth Daly Helen Elizabeth Fox	Alfred Ainsworth Daly Helen Elizabeth Fox 💍 1894/2401	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	22 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Day, Ghuznee Street	94/2530		18 August 1894	Rev. James Grey
274	18 August 1894	Leslie Brown Louisa Annie Lodge	Leslie Brown Louisa Annie Lodge 💍 1894/2285	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 24	Wellington Wellington	3 weeks 3 weeks	Registrar's Office, Wellington	94/2482		18 August 1894	W. L. Wyatt
275	18 August 1894	George Henry Guthrie Lillias Eliza Niven	George Henry Guthrie Lillias Eliza Niven 💍 1894/2284	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	24 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	94/2481		18 August 1894	W. L. Wyatt

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).