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 631

District of Feilding Quarter ending 30 June 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
448	10 April 1895	Henry Price Clare Anna Magrita Elisa Bensemann	Henry Price Clare Anna Margareta Elisa Bensemann 💍 1895/3762	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 29	Waituna West Waituna West	16 years 9 years	House of J. A. Bensemann, Waituna West	95/1286		10 April 1895	G. B. W. Meyer, Marton
449	12 April 1895	Charles Herbert Manning Catherine Maria Shaffar	Charles Herbert Manning Catherine Maria Shaffar 💍 1895/3761	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	22 21	Palmerston North Palmerston North	3 days 3 days	Registrars Office, Feilding	95/1285		12 April 1895	J. H. Stevens, Feilding
450	16 April 1895	Andrew McMurtrie Matilda Tricklebank	Andrew McMurtrie Matilda Tricklebank 💍 1895/3892	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 21	Fowlers Fowlers	6 days 2 1/2 days	Wesleyan Church, Fowlers	95/1293		16 April 1895	Thos. Richards, Fowlers
451	16 April 1895	Frederick Henry Keeve Margaret Louisa Howell	Frederick Henry Keevil England Margaret Louisa Howell 💍 1895/3745	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 19	Waituna West Waituna West	4 years 8 years	Residence of Marietta Howell, Waituna West	95/1294	Marietta Howell, mother	16 April 1895	A. S. Humes Jones, Feilding
452	18 April 1895	Walter Boshier Eleanor Tolley	Walter Boshier Eleanor Tolley 💍 1895/3993	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 23	Pemberton Fowlers	4 1/2 years 3 years	Residence of H. Tolley, Fowlers	95/1294		18 April 1895	J. Richards, Fowlers
453	9 May 1895	Charles Parsons Guthrie Phoebe Bowler	Charles Parsons Guthrie Phoebe Bowler 💍 1895/3764	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	25 23	Feilding Feilding	16 years 17 years	Residence of Alexander Guthrie, Feilding	95/1288		9 May 1895	J. Booker, Feilding
454	13 May 1895	Hedley Mines Annie Elizabeth Welsh	Hedley Minis Annie Elizabeth Welsh 💍 1895/3743	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	25 17	Feilding Apiti	3 years 1 year	Residence of J. Pawson, Feilding	95/1289	Eliza Dick (formerly Welsh), mother	13 May 1895	J. Booker, Feilding
455	7 June 1895	Henry Davis Diesema Alice Maud Foster	Henry Davis Trevena Alice Maud Foster 💍 1895/3744	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Proprietor	36 26	Feilding Feilding	20 years 20 years	Primitive Methodist Church, Feilding	95/1290		7 June 1895	J. Cocker, Feilding

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).