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 689

District of Christchurch 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
132	16 April 1894	Frederick James Barnard Grace Murray Douglas	Frederick James Barnard Grace Murray Douglas 💍 1894/1490	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	36 24	Christchurch Christchurch	16 years 24 years	Registrar's Office	94/1620		16 April 1894	Registrar, Henry Adams
133	16 April 1894	Robert Robertson Emily Graham	Robert Robertson Emily Graham 💍 1894/1739	Widower Widow	Blacksmith Dressmaker	54 43	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 10 years	House of Mr. Graham, Montreal Street	94/1656		16 April 1894	Rev. Gordon Webster, Presbyterian
134	16 April 1894	Daniel Foley Mary Elizabeth Smith	Daniel Foley Mary Elizabeth Smith 💍 1894/1682	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	35 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 20 years	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church	94/1695	James Smith, Father	16 April 1894	Rev. Father Semerant, Roman Catholic
135	16 April 1894	Henry William Hicks Hannah Shuker	Henry William Wicks Hannah Shuker 💍 1894/3937	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Tailoress	26 20	Christchurch Christchurch	26 years 20 years	House of Mrs. Shuker, Hazeldean Road, Sydenham	94/1669	Mary Ann Shuker, Mother	16 April 1894	Rev. G. Howsell, United Methodist
136	17 April 1894	John Rains Annie Jane McDowell	John Nairn Annie Jane McDowall 💍 1894/1717	Bachelor Spinster	Florist	30 24	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 24 years	House of Mrs. McDowell, Montreal Street	94/1657		17 April 1894	Rev. G. Webster, Presbyterian
137	20 April 1894	Thomas Frank Cummins Rose Cook	Thomas Frank Cummins Rose Cook 💍 1894/2003	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Bootfitter	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 9 years	House of Mrs. Cook, Antigua Street	94/1989		20 April 1894	Rev. W. Bamble, Wesleyan
138	20 April 1894	Leonard James Herrick Sarah Carter	Oswald James Herrick Sarah Carter 💍 1894/1989	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 22	Christchurch Christchurch	25 years 22 years	Wesleyan Church, East Belt	94/2126		20 April 1894	Rev. F. W. Isitt, Wesleyan

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).