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 635

District of Greytown 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
663	29 April 1895	Walter Bennett Sarah Eliza Buckingham	Walter Bennett Sarah Eliza Buckingham 💍 1895/3747	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 25	Greytown North Greytown North	3 days 3 days	Office of the Registrar Greytown	95/1297		29 April 1895	Registrar Greytown
664	30 April 1895	William Charles Heind Sarah Baxter	William Charles Hird Sarah Simmonds 💍 1895/3748 William John Nieslen Sarah Gardner 💍 1895/914	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	28 38	Greytown North Greytown North	6 months 1 day	Office of the Registrar Greytown	95/1298		30 April 1895	Registrar Greytown
665	15 May 1895	Joseph Sheridan Pikihina Manihesa	Joseph Sheridan Pikihuia Manihera 💍 1895/3690	Bachelor Spinster Native	Native Land Court Bailiff	22 18	Greytown North Te Ore Ore	18 years 2 years	Church Te Ore Ore Masterton	95/1312	Kahungunu, Father	16 April 1895	Francis Melie, Roman Catholic Minister
666	18 May 1895	Alfred Foy Jane Seville Halland	Alfred Toy Jane Neville Holland 💍 1895/3749	Bachelor Spinster	Platelayer	21 19	Greytown North Greytown North	2 years 6 months	Office of the Registrar Greytown North	95/1299	Harriett Halland, Mother	18 May 1895	Registrar Greytown North
667	21 May 1895	Edward William Neilsen Tristine Maria Madsen	Edward William Nielsen Kristine Maria Madsen 💍 1895/3754	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 20	Greytown North Greytown North	20 years 20 years	Residence of Mr. Christian Madsen at Greytown North	95/1303	Christian Madsen, Father	21 May 1895	Johannes Johansen Leparth, Lutheran Minister
668	12 June 1895	William Hannelow Rose Beatrice Perkins	William Hornslow Rose Beatrice Perkins 💍 1895/3755	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	25 22	Greytown North Greytown North	3 days 18 years	Residence of Mr. Thomas Perkins at Greytown North	95/1304		12 June 1895	S. J. Gibson, Wesleyan Minister
669	19 June 1895	Joseph Quinn Amelia Hodge	Joseph Quin Amelia Hodge 💍 1895/3751	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 18	Greytown North Greytown North	18 years 4 years	Residence of Mr. John Hodge at Greytown North	95/1301	John Hodge, Father	19 June 1895	Charles Murray M.A., Presbyterian Minister
670	24 June 1895	Alexander Row Webster Priscilla Ann Rowse	Alexander Low Webster Priscilla Ann Rowse 💍 1895/3752	Widower Spinster	Accountant	41 21	Greytown North Greytown North	8 years 5 years	Presbyterian Church	95/1302		24 June 1895	Charles Murray M.A., 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).