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 719

District of Lyttelton 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
14	23 May 1894	Gilbert Harrison Amy Jane Knowles	Gilbert Harrison Amy Jane Knowles 💍 1894/1760	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	31 years 19 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	7 days 19 years	Holy Trinity Church, Lyttelton	94/1731	Elizabeth Knowles, mother	23 May 1894	Rev C Coates, Anglican Minister
15	28 May 1894	William Fitzsimons Le Warne Mary Gournot formerly Sinclair	William Fritzsimons Le Warne Mary Gousunot 💍 1894/1741	Bachelor Widow	Mariner	44 years 30 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	10 years 20 years	House of William Sinclair, Lyttelton	94/1734		28 May 1894	Rev G H Headway, Presbyterian Minister
16	6 June 1894	Charles Laurence O'Brien Elizabeth Mary Bamford	Charles Lawrence OBrien Elizabeth Mary Bamford 💍 1894/1758	Widower Spinster	Prison Warder	37 years 22 years	Lyttelton Governors Bay	11 years 20 years	St Joseph's Church, Lyttelton	94/1729		6 June 1894	Rev Father Salvador, Roman Catholic Minister
17	7 June 1894	John Edward Fox Edith Miriam Beall	John Edward Fox Edith Miriam Bell 💍 1894/1761	Bachelor Spinster	Steward	24 years 23 years	55 Takapuna Lyttelton	2 1/2 years 8 years	Holy Trinity Church, Lyttelton	94/1732		8 June 1894	Rev C Coates, Anglican Minister
18	9 June 1894	Edward Thomas Howell Julia Frances Walsh	Edward Thomas Howell Julia Frances Walsh 💍 1894/1757	Bachelor Spinster	Artilleryman	23 years 25 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	1 year 3 weeks	St Joseph's Church, Lyttelton	94/1728		9 June 1894	Rev Father Salvador, Roman Catholic Minister
19	16 June 1894	James Heeney Louisa Verbridge	James Heeney Louisa Derbidge 💍 1894/1932	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman Dressmaker	26 years 20 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	4 years 20 years	House of Edwin Verbridge, Lyttelton	94/2040	Edwin Verbridge, father	16 June 1894	Rev P W Fairclough, Wesleyan Minister
20	20 June 1894	John Peach (Junior) Mary Elizabeth Bird	John Peach Mary Elizabeth Bird 💍 1894/1667	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 years 24 years	Port Levy Port Levy	12 years 2 years	House of John Peach, Port Levy	94/1707		21 June 1894	Rev H S Hamilton, Anglican Minister
21	21 June 1894	Alfred Day Maria Walker	Alfred Day Maria Walker 💍 1894/1933	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 years 24 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	19 years 4 days	House of Frederick Day, Lyttelton	94/2041		21 June 1894	Rev P W Fairclough, Wesleyan Minister
22	25 June 1894	Francis John Page Eliza Ann Mann	Francis John Page Eliza Ann Mann 💍 1894/4044	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	25 years 24 years	Lyttelton Lyttelton	13 years 24 years	House of William Mann, Lyttelton	94/2042		25 June 1894	Rev P W Fairclough, Wesleyan Minister
23	29 June 1894	Harry Radford Mabel Isabella Smith	Harry Radford Mabel Isabella Smith 💍 1894/2470	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	39 years 17 years	Gebbies Valley Teddington	20 years 17 years	St Peter's Church	94/2685	John Smith, father	29 June 1894	Rev J Sheldon, Anglican Minister

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).