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 549

District of Napier Quarter ending 30 June 1894 Registrar John Grubb

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

17 April 1894

Maurice Ahern
Johanna Connell

Maurice Ahern
Johanna O'Connell
💍 1894/1275

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Domestic

30
30

Napier
Napier

4 years
3 years

Catholic Chapel

94/1315

17 April 1894

Rev. P. Kerregan

No	32
Date of Notice	17 April 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Maurice Ahern	Johanna Connell
BDM Match (94%)	Maurice Ahern	Johanna O'Connell
	💍 1894/1275
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Domestic
Age	30	30
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	4 years	3 years
Marriage Place	Catholic Chapel
Folio	94/1315
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 April 1894
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. Kerregan

17 April 1894

Richard Martin
Emma Frances Harding

Richard Martin
Emma Frances Harding
💍 1894/2421

Widower
Spinster

Settler

50
34

Napier
Napier

23 years
20 years

Residence of Brides Father

94/2352

17 April 1894

Rev. D. G. Paterson

No	33
Date of Notice	17 April 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Richard Martin	Emma Frances Harding
	💍 1894/2421
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Settler
Age	50	34
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	23 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Brides Father
Folio	94/2352
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 April 1894
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. G. Paterson

20 April 1894

Alfred Dalbot Vickery
Ethelinda Noble

Alfred Talbot Vickery
Ethelinda Noble
💍 1894/1273

Widower
Spinster

Carpenter

30
26

Waipukurau
Napier

3 years
6 months

Church of Port Ahuriri

94/1313

20 April 1894

Rev. O. Dean

No	34
Date of Notice	20 April 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Dalbot Vickery	Ethelinda Noble
BDM Match (98%)	Alfred Talbot Vickery	Ethelinda Noble
	💍 1894/1273
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	30	26
Dwelling Place	Waipukurau	Napier
Length of Residence	3 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Church of Port Ahuriri
Folio	94/1313
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 April 1894
Officiating Minister	Rev. O. Dean

20 April 1894

Reginald Hedman Bedingfield
Clara Musrow

Reginald Hichman Bedingfield
Clara Murron
💍 1894/1283

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer

23
19

Makaretu
Napier

8 years
4 days

Roman Catholic Church

94/1316

William Henry Musrow, Father

23 April 1894

Rev. M. Grogan

No	35
Date of Notice	20 April 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Reginald Hedman Bedingfield	Clara Musrow
BDM Match (86%)	Reginald Hichman Bedingfield	Clara Murron
	💍 1894/1283
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer
Age	23	19
Dwelling Place	Makaretu	Napier
Length of Residence	8 years	4 days
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church
Folio	94/1316
Consent	William Henry Musrow, Father
Date of Certificate	23 April 1894
Officiating Minister	Rev. M. Grogan

24 April 1894

Alfred Ware
Alice Jane Forster

Alfred Ware
Alice Jane Forster
💍 1894/1265

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Domestic

37
20

Waiohiki
Napier

8 years
3 days

St. Augustine's Church

94/1306

Eliza Forster, Mother

24 April 1894

Rev. A. M. Bradbury

No	36
Date of Notice	24 April 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Ware	Alice Jane Forster
	💍 1894/1265
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Domestic
Age	37	20
Dwelling Place	Waiohiki	Napier
Length of Residence	8 years	3 days
Marriage Place	St. Augustine's Church
Folio	94/1306
Consent	Eliza Forster, Mother
Date of Certificate	24 April 1894
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. M. Bradbury

24 April 1894

Arthur Angus Kennedy
Ethel Mary Osborne Hamlin

Arthur Angus Kennedy
Ethel Mary Osborne Hamlin
💍 1894/2061

Bachelor
Spinster

Surveyor

28
20

Napier
Napier

28 years
20 years

Cathedral at Napier

94/2104

24 April 1894

Rev. De Berdt Hovell

No	37
Date of Notice	24 April 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Arthur Angus Kennedy	Ethel Mary Osborne Hamlin
	💍 1894/2061
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Surveyor
Age	28	20
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	28 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Cathedral at Napier
Folio	94/2104
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 April 1894
Officiating Minister	Rev. De Berdt Hovell

27 April 1894

Ernest Ferdinand Krause
Jessie M. Vickar

Bachelor
Spinster

Fireman

30
37

Port Ahuriri
Western Spit

20 years
4 years

Residence of the Rev. G. Paterson, Napier

94/2356

27 April 1894

Rev. G. Paterson

No	38
Date of Notice	27 April 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Ferdinand Krause	Jessie M. Vickar
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fireman
Age	30	37
Dwelling Place	Port Ahuriri	Western Spit
Length of Residence	20 years	4 years
Marriage Place	Residence of the Rev. G. Paterson, Napier
Folio	94/2356
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 April 1894
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Paterson

28 April 1894

William Temperley
Nancy Holden

William Temperley
Nancy Holden
💍 1894/2058

Widower
Spinster

Printer

33
31

Napier
Napier

7 years
3 days

The Cathedral, Napier

94/2102

28 April 1894

Rev. De Berdt Hovell

No	39
Date of Notice	28 April 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Temperley	Nancy Holden
	💍 1894/2058
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Printer
Age	33	31
Dwelling Place	Napier	Napier
Length of Residence	7 years	3 days
Marriage Place	The Cathedral, Napier
Folio	94/2102
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 April 1894
Officiating Minister	Rev. De Berdt Hovell

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 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).