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 742

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
201	23 May 1895	John Gale Mary Harrow	John Gale May Harron 💍 1895/461	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	24 17	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 15 years	House of Rev. J. M. Harrow, King St, Sydney	95/1614	James Harrow, father	23 May 1895	Rev. G. Webster, Presbyterian
202	23 May 1895	Hugh McConnell Sophia Greig		Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 22	Christchurch Christchurch	4 months 4 months	Registrar's Office	Not Solemnized. See memo attached.		23 May 1895	Registrar's Office Clerk
203	27 May 1895	Joseph Perkins Mary Smallman	Joseph Perkins Mary Smallman 💍 1895/440	Widower Spinster		75 38	Christchurch Christchurch	35 years 9 months	Registrar's Office	95/1623		27 May 1895	Registrar's Office
204	27 May 1895	William Alexander Roberts Margaret Evans	William Alexander Doherty Margaret Evans 💍 1895/3861	Bachelor Spinster	Turner Dressmaker	25 23	Christchurch Christchurch	14 years 20 years	Roman Catholic Cathedral	95/2946		27 May 1895	Rev. J. Cummings, Roman Catholic
205	27 May 1895	Samuel Kennedy Gertrude Grace Weistone	Samuel Kennedy Gertrude Grace Winstone 💍 1895/489	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	24 24	Christchurch Christchurch	35 years 20 years	House of Rev. W. Birch, Cashel St, Christchurch	95/1686		27 May 1895	Rev. W. Birch, Baptist
206	27 May 1895	William Welsh Emily Concerns	William Welsh Emily Ann Owens 💍 1895/510	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter	28 19	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 1 year	St. Peter's Church	95/1911	Ignatius Concerns, father	27 May 1895	Rev. W. T. P. Winter, Church of England
207	28 May 1895	Henry Charles Powle Elizabeth Harris Hadfield	Henry Charles Dowle Elizabeth Harris Hadfield 💍 1895/496	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	26 23	Christchurch Christchurch	26 years 23 years	House of Mr. A. Burrows, London St, Richmond	95/1688		28 May 1895	Rev. A. W. Ashcroft, Methodist

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).