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 107

District of Hawera Quarter ending 31 March 1895

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
173	2 January 1895	John Tredrea Mary Lowrie	John Tredrea Mary Lourie 💍 1895/2677	Bachelor Spinster	waiter waitress	33 23	Hawera Hawera	8 months 8 months	Registrars office Hawera	95/197		2 January 1895	J. F. Martin
174	4 January 1895	Victor Sandlant Frances Burnes	Victor Sandlant Frances Burnes 💍 1895/2678	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Housemaid	23 21	Hawera Hawera	5 months 3 months	Church of England Hawera	95/198		4 January 1895	W. H. Kay
175	22 January 1895	Robert Richard Edward Kenehan Frances Mary Kite	Robert Richard Edward Lenehan Frances Mary Kite 💍 1895/3931	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Domestic Servant	30 24	Hawera Hawera	4 years 2 years	Church of England Hawera	95/199		22 January 1895	W. H. Kay
176	15 February 1895	William Middleton Beaumont Phoebe Josephine Parker	William Middleton Beaumont Phoebe Josephine Parker 💍 1895/2679	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Housemaid	43 30	Hawera Hawera	4 days 4 days	Church of England Hawera	95/200		15 February 1895	W. H. Kay
177	28 February 1895	William Jobson Cecile Josephine Adamson	William Jobson Cecile Josephine Adamson 💍 1895/776	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 22	Hawera Hawera	3 months 22 years	at the residence of the brides father William Charles Adamson Regent Street Hawera	95/2013		28 February 1895	Thomas McDonald
178	9 March 1895	Sidney John Henry Parker Bessie Barrott	Sidney John Henry Bessie Barrott 💍 1895/847	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmiller Housemaid	19 22	Neill Road Neill Road	6 years 1 year	at the residence of the grooms father John Henry Parker Neill Road	95/2095	John Henry Parker, father	9 March 1895	J. W. Hayward
179	23 March 1895	William McHear Mary Blythe	William McLean Mary Blythe 💍 1895/3738	Widower Spinster	Evangelist	59 40	Hawera Hawera	13 days 7 years	Registrars office Hawera	95/1082		23 March 1895	J. F. Martin
180	25 March 1895	William Guy Clemoes Christina Smith	William Gray Clemoes Christina Smith 💍 1895/2680	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Servant	22 21	Hawera Hawera	17 years 18 months	Church of England Hawera	95/201		25 March 1895	W. H. Kay

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).