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 010

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 1894 Registrar S.H. Lyons

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

30 January 1894

Frank Denison Brown
Annie Elizabeth George

Frank Denison Brown
Annie Elizabeth McGeorge
💍 1894/1155

Bachelor
Spinster

Agent

34
38

Auckland
Auckland

10 days

Grand Hotel, Princes St, Auckland

94/761

30 January 1894

Rev. R.S. Week, Presbyterian

No	50
Date of Notice	30 January 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frank Denison Brown	Annie Elizabeth George
BDM Match (96%)	Frank Denison Brown	Annie Elizabeth McGeorge
	💍 1894/1155
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Agent
Age	34	38
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	10 days
Marriage Place	Grand Hotel, Princes St, Auckland
Folio	94/761
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 January 1894
Officiating Minister	Rev. R.S. Week, Presbyterian

30 January 1894

Robert McKenzie Clark
Josephine Meares Wilson

Robert McKenzie Clark
Josephine Maria Nilson
💍 1894/91

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper

31
17

Toka Toka
Auckland

18 years
14 years

Registrar's Office

94/114

John Wilson, Father

30 January 1894

S.H. Lyons, Registrar

No	51
Date of Notice	30 January 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert McKenzie Clark	Josephine Meares Wilson
BDM Match (91%)	Robert McKenzie Clark	Josephine Maria Nilson
	💍 1894/91
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper
Age	31	17
Dwelling Place	Toka Toka	Auckland
Length of Residence	18 years	14 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	94/114
Consent	John Wilson, Father
Date of Certificate	30 January 1894
Officiating Minister	S.H. Lyons, Registrar

30 January 1894

John Donnelly
Blanche Garbutt

John Donnelly
Florence Blanche Tarbutt
💍 1894/90

Bachelor
Spinster

Watchmaker

27
22

Auckland
Auckland

18 years

Registrar's Office

94/113

30 January 1894

S.H. Lyons, Registrar

No	52
Date of Notice	30 January 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Donnelly	Blanche Garbutt
BDM Match (79%)	John Donnelly	Florence Blanche Tarbutt
	💍 1894/90
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Watchmaker
Age	27	22
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	18 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	94/113
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 January 1894
Officiating Minister	S.H. Lyons, Registrar

30 January 1894

Walter Jackson Brown
Elizabeth Annie Brown

Walter Jackson
Elizabeth Annie Brown
💍 1894/85

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

32
31

Opuawhanga
Devonport

15 years
12 months

House of R. & G. Brown, Cheltenham Beach, Devonport

94/58

30 January 1894

Rev. J. Ward, Wesleyan

No	53
Date of Notice	30 January 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Jackson Brown	Elizabeth Annie Brown
BDM Match (85%)	Walter Jackson	Elizabeth Annie Brown
	💍 1894/85
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	32	31
Dwelling Place	Opuawhanga	Devonport
Length of Residence	15 years	12 months
Marriage Place	House of R. & G. Brown, Cheltenham Beach, Devonport
Folio	94/58
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 January 1894
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Ward, Wesleyan

31 January 1894

George Henry Little
Letitia Smith

George Henry Little
Letitia Smith
💍 1894/236

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

31
26

Auckland
Auckland

3 years

St. Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland

94/27

31 January 1894

Rev. J. Doyle, Roman Catholic

No	54
Date of Notice	31 January 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Henry Little	Letitia Smith
	💍 1894/236
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	31	26
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	3 years
Marriage Place	St. Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland
Folio	94/27
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 January 1894
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Doyle, Roman Catholic

1 February 1894

Luke Stougie
Jane Gandle

Luke Stougie
Jane Yandle
💍 1894/92

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

32
22

Auckland
Auckland

18 years
22 years

Registrar's Office

94/115

1 February 1894

S.H. Lyons, Registrar

No	55
Date of Notice	1 February 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Luke Stougie	Jane Gandle
BDM Match (95%)	Luke Stougie	Jane Yandle
	💍 1894/92
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	32	22
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	18 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	94/115
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 February 1894
Officiating Minister	S.H. Lyons, Registrar

3 February 1894

William Benjamin Perry
Annie Brooker

William Benjamin Perry
Annie Brooker
💍 1894/93

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

21
21

Whangarei
Auckland

3 years
3 days

Registrar's Office

94/116

3 February 1894

S.H. Lyons, Registrar

No	56
Date of Notice	3 February 1894
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Benjamin Perry	Annie Brooker
	💍 1894/93
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Whangarei	Auckland
Length of Residence	3 years	3 days
Marriage Place	Registrar's Office
Folio	94/116
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 February 1894
Officiating Minister	S.H. Lyons, Registrar

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).