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 337

District of Auckland 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	24 January 1895	John Augustus Fraser Nellie Margaret White	John Augustus Fraser Nellie Margaret White 💍 1895/3093	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	29 28	Auckland Auckland	4 Weeks 26 years	St. Mary's Episcopalian Church, Auckland	95/759		24 January 1895	Rev. William Hawkins Rochin, Writer, Church of England Clergyman
2	30 January 1895	George Godfrey Shaw Emma Cookson	George Godfrey Shaw Emma Cookson 💍 1895/3091	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	20 22	Auckland Auckland	1 year 10 months	Registrar's Office, Auckland	95/757	James Henry Shaw, Father	30 January 1895	Thomas Stanley, Registrar of Marriages, Auckland
3	31 January 1895	David Armand Miller Anna Coe	David Annand Miller Rentoul Anna Coe 💍 1895/3092	Bachelor Spinster	Maulder Grassmaker	29 29	Auckland Auckland	10 days 29 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	95/758		31 January 1895	Thomas Stanley, Registrar of Marriages, Auckland
4	25 February 1895	John Myles McCarthy Julia Fleming	John Myles McCarthy Julia Fleming 💍 1895/175	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 25	Temuka Pleasant Point	6 months 12 years	Roman Catholic Church, Pleasant Point	95/756		25 February 1895	Rev. Daniel J. Malone, Roman Catholic Priest
5	6 March 1895	Matthew Smith Cecilia Cunningham	Matthew Smith Cecilia Cunningham 💍 1895/3187	Bachelor Spinster	Hammer	52 35	Seadown Totara Valley	10 years 8 months	Residence of Mr. William Cunningham, Totara Valley	95/761		6 March 1895	Rev. William James Comrie, Presbyterian Minister
6	8 March 1895	John Thomas Cullen Ellen Mary Eliza Meyers (Hendry)	John Thomas Cullen Ellen Mary Eliza Meyer Hendry 💍 1895/3198	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	24 21	Bluecliffs Bluecliffs	8 years 21 years	St. Mary's Episcopalian Church, Auckland	95/762		8 March 1895	Rev. Lawrence Carsley Brady, Church of England Minister
7	9 March 1895	William Snowell Mary Taylor	William Trowell Mary Taylor 💍 1895/3977 William Edwin Bate Clara Taylor 💍 1895/516	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	30 21	Gleniti Gleniti	3 months 3 Weeks	Residence of Mr. Reuben Fonseca, Gleniti	95/763		9 March 1895	Rev. Joseph Sharpe, Primitive Methodist Minister
8	14 March 1895	Arthur Maurice Hendy Amy Carr	Arthur Maurice Hendy Amy Carr 💍 1895/3094	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser	24 25	Auckland Auckland	15 months 2 years	St. Mary's Episcopalian Church, Auckland	95/760		14 March 1895	Ven. Archdeacon Henry W. Harper, Church of England Minister
9	27 March 1895	William Aitken Annie Eddy	William Aitken Annie Eddy 💍 1895/3821	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 21	Pleasant Point Pleasant Point	3 days 3 Weeks	Residence of Mr. John Edyvan, Pleasant Point	95/719		27 March 1895	Rev. Joseph White, Presbyterian Minister
10	29 March 1895	William Nolan Katherine Phelan	William Nolan Catherine Phelan 💍 1895/548	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	33 17	Auckland Auckland	14 days 8 days	Roman Catholic Chapel, Auckland	95/782	No person in Colony to give consent.	29 April 1895	Rev. Louis Hurton, Roman Catholic Priest

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).