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

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
32	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
33	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
34	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
35	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
36	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
37	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
38	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
39	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

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).