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 197

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 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
108	27 March 1894	Herbert Edmonds Mary Josephine Hare	Herbert Edmonds Mary Josephine Hare 💍 1894/442	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	25 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Peters Church	94/434		27 March 1894	Rev. W. C. Waters
109	27 March 1894	Jens Johansen Annie Wells	Jens Johansen Annie Wells 💍 1894/463	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	34 20	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Mary's Cathedral	94/474	Martha Petersen, mother	27 March 1894	Rev. J. Dawson
110	28 March 1894	Joseph Stephen Wareham Emily Mountain	Joseph Stephen Wareham Emily Mountain 💍 1894/549	Bachelor Spinster	Bus Driver	23 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Mary of the Angels	94/423		28 March 1894	Very Rev. J. Devoy
111	28 March 1894	William Smith Vallender Fisher Mary Ann Lee	William Smith Vullender Fisher Mary Ann Lee 💍 1894/519 Richard Henry Penrose Mary Ann Lee 💍 1895/2854	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	23 21	Johnsonville Wellington	years years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	94/510		28 March 1894	Mr. Wylie
112	29 March 1894	William Moses Rendell Frances Ellen Williams Rendell	William Moses Randell Frances Ellen Williams 💍 1894/1500	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker	20 21	Wellington Wellington	1 year years	House of Mr. Rendell, Tasman Street	94/1491	John William Rendell, father	29 March 1894	Rev. W. Shirer
113	29 March 1894	Philip Gosney Nelly Redman	Philip Gosney Nelly Redman McAuslin 💍 1894/1521	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	26 24	Wellington Wellington	years 3 days	Primitive Methodist Church, Webb Street	94/1498		29 March 1894	Rev. James Guy
114	29 March 1894	Samuel Bland Bull Ellen Elizabeth Lawrence	Samuel Bland Birch Ellen Elizabeth Laurenson 💍 1894/1502	Bachelor Spinster	Labour	40 31	Wellington Wellington	years years	St Peters Church	94/1502		29 March 1894	Rev. W. C. Waters
115	30 March 1894	Frank Pycroft Phoebe Blamford	Frank Pycroft Phoebe Blanford 💍 1894/438	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	21 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Pycroft, Constable Street	94/449		30 March 1894	Rev. C. Dallaston
116	30 March 1894	Charles Arthur Nameon Maggie Overstone	Charles Arthur Harrison Maggie Overstone 💍 1894/447	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	29 28	Wellington Wellington	9 months years	St Peters Church	94/435		30 March 1894	Rev. W. C. Waters

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).