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 737

District of Christchurch 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
180	9 May 1895	William Ramsay Mary Emily Marianne Wellbeloved	William Ramsay Emily Marianne Welbeloved 💍 1895/490 William Ramsay Mabel Ellen Robinson 💍 1895/2749	Bachelor Widow	Clerk	55 52	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 7 years	House of Mr. H. Hecks, 2 Worcester St.	95/1705	9 May 1895	Rev. J. Roke, Baptist
181	11 May 1895	John George Ball Ellen Scott	John George Ball Eliza Scott 💍 1895/805	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Smith	28 22	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years	St. Johns Church, Christchurch	95/2074	11 May 1895	Rev. H. C. M. Watson, Church of England
182	13 May 1895	Benjamin Boden Mary Green Colgan	Benjamin Boden Mary Ann Octgen 💍 1895/925	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	31 33	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	St. Saviours Church, Sydenham	95/1668	13 May 1895	Rev. T. A. Scott, Church of England
183	13 May 1895	Peter Hill Mumford Jane Mumford	Peter Hill Jane Mumford 💍 1895/931	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic	24 22	Christchurch Christchurch	18 years 22 years	House of Mr. Elias Cleland, 10 Sydenham St.	95/1674	13 May 1895	Rev. C. Palmer, Methodist
184	13 May 1895	William Henry Hosking Amelia Matilda Charlotte Forms	William Henry Hosking Amelia Matilda Charlotte Lorus 💍 1895/491	Widower Widow	Seller	47 44	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 1 year	House of Mr. A. B. Worthington, 182 Madras Street, Christchurch	95/1706	13 May 1895	Mr. A. B. Worthington, Student of Truth
185	13 May 1895	Charles Tindall Kate Elizabeth Driver	Charles Tindall Kate Elizabeth Davies 💍 1895/4140	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	27 27	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 years	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	95/1618	13 May 1895	Registrar, J. W. Anderson
186	14 May 1895	Andrew Brough Alice Ward	Andrew Brough Alice Ward 💍 1895/484	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Domestic	46 26	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 27 years	House of Mr. Richard Campbell, 12 Caledonian Road	95/1699	14 May 1895	Rev. W. Isitt, Wesleyan

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).