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 779

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 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
180	6 June 1894	Victor Louis Frewern Margaret Brennan	Victor Louis Trewern Margaret Brennan 💍 1894/1776	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	18 years 18 years	Dunedin Dunedin	18 years 18 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages	94/1819	William Charles Frewern, father of minor; Margaret Johnson, mother of minor	6 June 1894	W. J. Hall, Registrar of Marriages
181	7 June 1894	Charles McIntyre Greenslade Marie Catherine Elizabeth Mills	Charles McIntyre Greenslade Marie Catherine Elizabeth Mills 💍 1894/4083	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	29 years 26 years	Dunedin Dunedin	20 years 26 years	In St. Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin	94/1858		7 June 1894	Revd. P. Lynch, Roman Catholic Priest
182	7 June 1894	Albert Peter Hansen Florence Maude Kane	Albert Peter Hansen Florence Maud Kane 💍 1894/1697	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	40 years 20 years	Dunedin Dunedin	7 days 20 years	In the Salvation Army Rescue Home	94/1838	Mary Ann Bagley, mother of minor	7 June 1894	Major Robinson, Salvation Army Officer
183	7 June 1894	Robert Wales Jane Ellen McFarlane	Robert Wales Jane Ellen McFarlane 💍 1894/1865	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	26 years 24 years	Roslyn Roslyn	26 years 20 years	In the house of Andrew McFarlane	94/1876		7 June 1894	Revd. J. Gibb, Presbyterian Minister
184	7 June 1894	Joseph Turner Margaret Burns	Joseph Turner Margaret Burns 💍 1894/4025	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 years 20 years	Roslyn Roslyn	3 years 6 years	In the house of George Burns	94/2980	George Burns, father of minor	7 June 1894	Revd. R. R. M. Sutherland, Presbyterian Minister
185	8 June 1894	William Lee Martin Harriet Wilhelmina Warnes	William Lee Martin Harriett Wilhelmina Warnes 💍 1894/1698	Bachelor Spinster	Salvation Army Officer	24 years 24 years	Dunedin Dunedin	1 week 6 days	In the Salvation Army Barracks	94/1839		8 June 1894	Major Robinson, Salvation Army Officer
186	8 June 1894	Patrick Edward Nolan Annie Josephine Cassidy	Patrick Edward Nolan Annie Josephine Cassidy 💍 1894/4087	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Employee	34 years 22 years	Caversham Caversham	9 years 15 years	In St. Patrick's Church, South Dunedin	94/1864		8 June 1894	Revd. G. M. Hunt, Roman Catholic Priest

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).