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 785

District of Quiriamu 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
11	1 April 1895	Harry Acton Nina Amelia Smith	Harry Acton Nina Amelia Smith 💍 1895/4135	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	28 25	The Cave Pleasant Point	7 years 6 years	Episcopalian Church, Pleasant Point	95/1780		1 April 1895	Rev. Stanley Hinson, Church of England Minister
12	2 April 1895	James Duff Mary Jane Kay	James Duff Mary Jane Hay 💍 1895/4025	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	31 22	Quiriamu Quiriamu	3 years 3 years	Residence of Mr. George Kay, Quiriamu	95/1786		2 April 1895	Rev. Joseph Sharp, Primitive Methodist Minister
13	24 April 1895	George Henry Walker Jane Edyvean	George Henry Walker Jane Edyvean 💍 1895/544	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	29 20	Pleasant Point Pleasant Point	6 years 15 years	Presbyterian Church, Pleasant Point	95/1779	John Edyvean, Father	24 April 1895	Rev. Joseph White, Presbyterian Minister
14	29 April 1895	Thomas Skinner Ruth Stringer	Thomas Skinner Ruth Stringer 💍 1895/4026	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Cook	25 25	Quiriamu Quiriamu	4 months 1 year	Residence of Rev. Joseph Sharp, Quiriamu	95/1787		29 April 1895	Rev. Joseph Sharp, Primitive Methodist Minister
15	11 May 1895	Thomas Edward Brehaut Mary Ann Shephard	Thomas Edward Brehaut Mary Ann Shephard 💍 1895/552	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	21 21	Salisbury Adair	12 days 12 years	Residence of Mr. William Shephard, Adair	95/1789		11 May 1895	Rev. Charles E. Beecroft, Wesleyan Minister
16	13 May 1895	Richard Kendall Charlotte Sophia Hughes	Richard Kendall Charlotte Sophia Hughes 💍 1895/563	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	28 23	Quiriamu Quiriamu	2 months 23 years	Episcopalian Church, Beaconsfield	95/1775		13 May 1895	Rev. Laurence Carsley Brady, Church of England Minister
17	24 May 1895	William Taylor Landells Frances Jessie Baker	William Taylor Landeles Francis Jessie Baker 💍 1895/549	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	18 18	Quiriamu St. Clair, Quiriamu	7 days 14 days	Residence of Mr. William Harvey, St. Clair, Quiriamu	95/1783	William Hamilton Landells - Father; James Were Baker - Mother	24 May 1895	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
18	28 May 1895	Charles Alexander Clark Clara Shave	Charles Alexander Clark Clara Shane 💍 1895/4027	Bachelor Spinster	Lithographer	26 30	St. Andrews St. Andrews	4 days 21 years	Residence of Mr. Joseph Thomas Shave, St. Andrews	95/1788		28 May 1895	Rev. William Campbell, Presbyterian Minister
19	28 May 1895	Samuel Anderson Lillian Dale	Samuel Anderson Lillian Dale 💍 1895/551	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	23 20	Quiriamu Quiriamu	6 years 20 years	St. Mary's Episcopalian Church, Quiriamu	95/1785	Charlotte Dale, Mother - Father dead	28 May 1895	Ven. Archdeacon Henry W. Harper, Church of England Clergyman
20	3 June 1895	George Preston Coates Margaret Maud Fletcher	George Preston Coates Margaret Maud Fletcher 💍 1895/550	Bachelor Spinster	Milling Engineer	33 30	Quiriamu Quiriamu	3 months 14 days	Residence of Mr. Edward Coxhead, Quiriamu	95/1784		3 June 1895	Rev. William Gillies, 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).