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 313

District of Lyttelton Quarter ending 31 March 1895 Registrar William Thruppham

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

14 February 1895

William Thomas Thompson
Jane Edgar

William Thomas Thompson
Jann Edgar
💍 1895/3082

Bachelor
Spinster

Agent
Machine Knitter

20 years
22 years

Lyttelton
Lyttelton

25 years
2 years

St. Saviour's Anglican Church, Lyttelton

95/735

14 February 1895

Rev. E. E. Chambers, Anglican Minister

No	1
Date of Notice	14 February 1895
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Thomas Thompson	Jane Edgar
BDM Match (95%)	William Thomas Thompson	Jann Edgar
	💍 1895/3082
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Agent	Machine Knitter
Age	20 years	22 years
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	25 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Saviour's Anglican Church, Lyttelton
Folio	95/735
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 February 1895
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. E. Chambers, Anglican Minister

20 February 1895

Thomas George Poulson
Jeannette Jenkins

Thomas George Pou-Tawera
Jeannette Jenkins
💍 1895/3085

Bachelor
Spinster

Civil Servant

34 years
32 years

Wellington
Paparoa, now of Lyttelton

4 days
4 days

Wesleyan Church, Lyttelton

95/737

20 February 1895

Rev. P. H. Fairclough, Wesleyan Minister

No	2
Date of Notice	20 February 1895
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas George Poulson	Jeannette Jenkins
BDM Match (85%)	Thomas George Pou-Tawera	Jeannette Jenkins
	💍 1895/3085
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Civil Servant
Age	34 years	32 years
Dwelling Place	Wellington	Paparoa, now of Lyttelton
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Church, Lyttelton
Folio	95/737
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 February 1895
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. H. Fairclough, Wesleyan Minister

4 March 1895

George Stockdill
Amelia Brown

George Herbert Stockdill
Amelia Brown
💍 1895/3084

Bachelor
Spinster

Provision Merchant

23 years
21 years

Sydenham
Paparoa, now of Lyttelton

4 days
4 days

St. Saviour's Anglican Church, Lyttelton

95/736

4 March 1895

Rev. E. E. Chambers, Anglican Minister

No	3
Date of Notice	4 March 1895
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Stockdill	Amelia Brown
BDM Match (83%)	George Herbert Stockdill	Amelia Brown
	💍 1895/3084
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Provision Merchant
Age	23 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	Sydenham	Paparoa, now of Lyttelton
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	St. Saviour's Anglican Church, Lyttelton
Folio	95/736
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 March 1895
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. E. Chambers, Anglican Minister

12 March 1895

George Robert Field
Mabel Joyce

George Robert Field
Mabel Joyce
💍 1895/3086

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

34 years
27 years

Port Levy
Lyttelton

34 years
9 years

House of John Joyce, London Street, Lyttelton

95/738

12 March 1895

Rev. P. H. Fairclough, Wesleyan Minister

No	4
Date of Notice	12 March 1895
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Robert Field	Mabel Joyce
	💍 1895/3086
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	34 years	27 years
Dwelling Place	Port Levy	Lyttelton
Length of Residence	34 years	9 years
Marriage Place	House of John Joyce, London Street, Lyttelton
Folio	95/738
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 March 1895
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. H. Fairclough, Wesleyan Minister

27 March 1895

Charles Frank Murray
Selina Jessica Parkinson

Charles Frank Murray
Selina Jessie Parkinson
💍 1895/532

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

24 years
25 years

Green Park, out of Gebbies Valley
Gebbies Valley

4 days
8 years

Anglican Church, Gebbies Valley

95/1744

27 March 1895

Rev. John Sheldon, Anglican Minister

No	5
Date of Notice	27 March 1895
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Frank Murray	Selina Jessica Parkinson
BDM Match (96%)	Charles Frank Murray	Selina Jessie Parkinson
	💍 1895/532
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	24 years	25 years
Dwelling Place	Green Park, out of Gebbies Valley	Gebbies Valley
Length of Residence	4 days	8 years
Marriage Place	Anglican Church, Gebbies Valley
Folio	95/1744
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 March 1895
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Sheldon, Anglican 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 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).