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 185

District of Masterton 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
1	1 January 1895	Charles Henry Hankley Hale Johnston		Bachelor Domestic Servant	Farmhand	24 23	Masterton Masterton	10 days 10 days	Church of England, Masterton	95/338		2 January 1895	Rev. H. C. York, Church of England Minister
2	1 January 1895	Ralph Carroll Grace Vogt	Ralph Carroll Louise Vogt 💍 1895/2812	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 29	Mauriceville Mauriceville	7 days 18 Months	Office of Registrar, Masterton	95/334		2 January 1895	John Baggs, Registrar
3	2 January 1895	James Candy Sarah Jane Wrigley	James Candy Sarah Ann Wrigley 💍 1895/2826	Bachelor Spinster	Musician	26 24	Masterton Masterton	12 Months 12 Months	House of Mr. James Wrigley, Masterton	95/340		3 January 1895	Rev. John Dukes, Wesleyan Minister
4	3 January 1895	Frederick Parrott Margaret McElleray	Richard Frederick Purser Margaret McGillivray 💍 1895/2818	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 29	Masterton Wellington	3 days 18 days	Church of England, Masterton	95/339		3 January 1895	Rev. H. C. York, Church of England Minister
5	15 January 1895	Thomas Jensen Jessie McKenzie	Thomas Jensen Jessie McKenzie 💍 1895/31	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 19	Mauriceville Mauriceville	3 days 3 years	House of Mr. McKenzie, Mauriceville	95/313	Mr. McKenzie, father	17 January 1895	Rev. J. F. Regarth, Lutheran Minister
6	20 January 1895	Frank Stains Sarah Jenkins	Frank Stains Sarah Jenkins 💍 1895/2837	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 20	Masterton Masterton	12 Months 12 Months	House of Mr. Jenkins, Masterton	95/341	Mrs. Jenkins, mother	28 January 1895	Rev. John Dukes, Wesleyan Minister
7	1 February 1895	Walter Henry Walter Cockburn Jane Griffin	Walter Jury Hatton Ockenden Jane Griffin 💍 1895/2814	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 21	Masterton Manaia	10 days 12 Months	House of Mr. Cockburn, Masterton	95/335		12 February 1895	Rev. Robert Ward, Presbyterian Minister
8	1 March 1895	Michael McGuire Mary Jane O'Neill	Robert McGuire Mary Jane O'Neill 💍 1895/2815	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 20	Masterton Masterton	12 Months 12 Months	House of Mr. O'Neill, Masterton	95/336		8 March 1895	Rev. John Dukes, Wesleyan Minister
9	1 March 1895	Michael Sullivan Margaret Galvin	Michael Sullivan Margaret Galvin 💍 1895/3688	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	45 35	Masterton Masterton	10 days 10 days	Roman Catholic Chapel, Masterton	95/310		8 March 1895	Rev. John McKenna, Roman Catholic Priest
10	1 March 1895	William Booth Louisa Dalgety	William Coster Louisa Janet Massey 💍 1895/3001 William Eastwood Louisa Decleene 💍 1895/2404 William Bailey Louisa Pearce 💍 1896/3831	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	25 18	Masterton Masterton	12 Months 12 Months	Presbyterian Manse, Masterton	95/337		18 March 1895	Rev. Robert Ward, Presbyterian Minister

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).