Intentions to Marry, 1895 January-June

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840407, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, June 11 2025.

1895 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 087

District of Thames Quarter ending 31 March 1895 Registrar Ethnuss

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

4 February 1895

James Alfred Strange
Margaret Jane Jamieson

James Alfred Strange
Margaret Jane Jamieson
💍 1895/349

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
None

25
20

Thames
Thames

25 years
20 years

St Francis Church Willoughby St Thames

95/165

Susan Jamieson, mother

4 February 1895

Rev Patrick O'Reilly, Roman Catholic

No	1
Date of Notice	4 February 1895
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Alfred Strange	Margaret Jane Jamieson
	💍 1895/349
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	None
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	25 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St Francis Church Willoughby St Thames
Folio	95/165
Consent	Susan Jamieson, mother
Date of Certificate	4 February 1895
Officiating Minister	Rev Patrick O'Reilly, Roman Catholic

13 February 1895

James Smith Fairgray
Elizabeth Renshaw

James Smith Vairgray
Elizabeth Penshaw
💍 1895/350

Bachelor
Spinster

Bank Clerk
None

32
26

Thames
Thames

3 days
26 years

The Dwelling of James Renshaw Willoughby St Thames

95/166

13 February 1895

Rev W. R. Woolley, Baptist

No	2
Date of Notice	13 February 1895
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Smith Fairgray	Elizabeth Renshaw
BDM Match (95%)	James Smith Vairgray	Elizabeth Penshaw
	💍 1895/350
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bank Clerk	None
Age	32	26
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	3 days	26 years
Marriage Place	The Dwelling of James Renshaw Willoughby St Thames
Folio	95/166
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 February 1895
Officiating Minister	Rev W. R. Woolley, Baptist

18 February 1895

George Morrison
Mary Davies

George Morrison
Mary Davies
💍 1895/3927

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith
None

25
26

Thames
Thames

3 days
20 years

The Dwelling of William Davies Totara

95/169

18 February 1895

Rev T. J. Neill, Unsectarian

No	3
Date of Notice	18 February 1895
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Morrison	Mary Davies
	💍 1895/3927
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith	None
Age	25	26
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	3 days	20 years
Marriage Place	The Dwelling of William Davies Totara
Folio	95/169
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 February 1895
Officiating Minister	Rev T. J. Neill, Unsectarian

9 March 1895

George Henry Barnett
Annie Rebecca Boone

George Henry Barnett
Annie Rebecca Cooke
💍 1895/351

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman
None

31
22

Warehoe Thames
Warehoe Thames

21 years
22 years

The Dwelling of Sarah Cooke Warehoe

95/168

9 March 1895

Edmund Harvey Taylor, Church of Christ

No	4
Date of Notice	9 March 1895
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Henry Barnett	Annie Rebecca Boone
BDM Match (95%)	George Henry Barnett	Annie Rebecca Cooke
	💍 1895/351
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman	None
Age	31	22
Dwelling Place	Warehoe Thames	Warehoe Thames
Length of Residence	21 years	22 years
Marriage Place	The Dwelling of Sarah Cooke Warehoe
Folio	95/168
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 March 1895
Officiating Minister	Edmund Harvey Taylor, Church of Christ

12 March 1895

Herbert Samuel Stewart
Henrietta Hollis

Herbert Samuel Stewart
Henrietta Hollis
💍 1895/352

Bachelor
Spinster

Photographer
None

33
26

Thames
Thames

3 days
25 years

St Georges Church Mackay St Thames

95/170

12 March 1895

Rev J. Callaghan, Church of England

No	5
Date of Notice	12 March 1895
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Herbert Samuel Stewart	Henrietta Hollis
	💍 1895/352
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Photographer	None
Age	33	26
Dwelling Place	Thames	Thames
Length of Residence	3 days	25 years
Marriage Place	St Georges Church Mackay St Thames
Folio	95/170
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 March 1895
Officiating Minister	Rev J. Callaghan, Church of England

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).