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 400

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 March 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
22	7 March 1895	Robert Richard Frier Laing Margaret Thomson	Robert Richard Frier Tait Margaret Thomson 💍 1895/3322	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	29 19	Waiwera Ryal Bush	12 Years 1 Year	House of Francis Thomson	95/872	Francis Thomson, father	7 March 1895	Rev. Wm. White
23	8 March 1895	Charles Beange Emily Scammell	Charles Beange Emily Scammell 💍 1895/3103	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer	34 18	Dacre Dacre	1 Year 18 Years	House of Emily Scammell	95/884	Elizabeth Scammell, mother	8 March 1895	Rev. Rowan Bissett
24	12 March 1895	Charles Albert Dykes Ellen Wren	Charles Albert Dykes Ellen Wren 💍 1895/3099	Bachelor Spinster	Sign Painter	25 26	Invercargill Invercargill	15 Years 3 Years	St. John's Church, Tay St.	95/879		12 March 1895	Ven. Archdeacon Stocker
25	15 March 1895	John Wilson Edith Johnston	John Wilson Edith Johnston 💍 1895/2643	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 22	Invercargill Invercargill	3 days 3 days	Office of the Registrar	95/874		15 March 1895	J. W. Wilkin, Invercargill
26	18 March 1895	Charles Frederick Snayd Helen Tomlinson	Charles Frederick Sneyd Ellen Tomlinson 💍 1895/3108	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	22 26	Wai Riwai Makarewa	3 Months 8 Years	All Saints Church, Gladstone, Invercargill	95/888		18 March 1895	Rev. G. W. Martin
27	20 March 1895	Andrew Campbell Annie James	Andrew Campbell Annie James 💍 1895/3112	Bachelor Spinster	Platelayer	25 23	Invercargill Invercargill	4 days 6 weeks	At the house of James James, Clyde St., Invercargill	95/892		20 March 1895	Rev. W. Woollars
28	25 March 1895	Andrew Smith Agnes Harriet Nearsley	Andrew Smith Agnes Harriet Keasley 💍 1895/3100	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 24	Invercargill Invercargill	21 Years 20 Years	St. John's Church, Tay St.	95/880		25 March 1895	Ven. Archdeacon Stocker

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).