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 309

District of Kaiapoi Quarter ending 3 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
868	14 January 1895	Alfred John Mudge Mary Jane Bowling	Alfred John Mudge May Jane Bowling 💍 1895/3176	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	25 24	Hayton Hayton	3 weeks 3 weeks	In the residence of Henry Bowling, Hayton	95/727		14 January 1895	Rev. J. Sow
869	29 January 1895	Robert Smith Jr. Emma Eder	Robert Smith Junr Emma Eder 💍 1895/3173	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer General Servant	31 26	Kaiapoi Woodend	3 days 6 years	The Registrar's office, Kaiapoi	95/724		29 January 1895	The Registrar
870	13 February 1895	Potang ote Kium Tepahip Jimaima Room Whiten		Widower Widow	Farmer Domestic duties	35 38	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	4 days 28 years	The Registrar's office, Kaiapoi	95/725		13 February 1895	The Registrar
871	19 February 1895	James Abraham Bate Isabella Dickie	James Abraham Bate Isabella Dickie 💍 1895/3826	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Weaver	25 20	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	20 years 20 years	In the residence of Isabella Dickie, Akaroa Street, Kaiapoi	95/733	Isabella Dickie, mother	19 February 1895	Rev. J. S. Smalley
872	25 February 1895	Fred Flint Harriet Rhoda Gist	Fred Flint Harriet Rhoda Cox 💍 1895/3179	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	27 21	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	3 days 21 years	Church of England, Kaiapoi	95/731		23 February 1895	Rev. H. H. Mathias
873	25 February 1895	Edward Smethurst Maria Dainton	Edward Smethurst Marion Sainton 💍 1895/3175	Bachelor Spinster	Agent Domestic duties	62 38	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	1 week 3 days	The Registrar's office, Kaiapoi	95/726		25 February 1895	The Registrar
874	11 March 1895	Ruke te Mairangi Taiaroa Ruiha Toitoi Mutu	Riki Te Mairangi Taiaroa Ruiha Toitoi Mutu 💍 1895/3825	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Household duties	26 19	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	4 days 19 years	St. Stephen's Church, Kaiapoi	95/732	C. P. Mutu, father	11 March 1895	Rev. J. W. Stack
875	19 March 1895	George Henry Blackmore Edith Emily Anderson	George Henry Davy Blackmore Emily Edith Anderson 💍 1895/3824	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Household duties	45 19	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	32 months 19 years	At the residence of Alexander Anderson, Charles Street, Kaiapoi	95/729	A. Anderson, father	19 March 1895	Rev. W. J. Sow
876	21 March 1895	William John Forrest Edith Puddle	William John Forrest Edith Puddle 💍 1895/4022	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Weaver	26 23	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	26 years 20 years	In the residence of William Puddle, North Road, Kaiapoi	95/738		21 March 1895	Rev. W. J. Sow

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).