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 374

District of Dunedin 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
61	5 March 1895	James Day Junr Mary Jane Louisa Wilson	James Day Mary Jane Louisa Wilson 💍 1895/3275	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22 years 20 years	Dunedin Dunedin	22 years 20 years	St Matthews Church	95/817	William Wilson, father of minor	5 March 1895	Revd E. P. Hood, Church of England Minister
62	5 March 1895	James Armstrong Agnes Robertson	James Armstrong Agnes Robertson 💍 1895/19 James Anderson Hodge Ellen Robertson 💍 1895/3551	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	50 years 30 years	Burnside Mornington	10 months 6 months	In the Presbyterian Church	95/811		5 March 1895	Revd R. J. Porter, Presbyterian Minister
63	8 March 1895	William Arthur Wise Annie Howlison	William Arthur Wise Annie Howlison 💍 1895/3122	Bachelor Spinster	Publisher	27 years 23 years	Burkes Dunedin	12 years 23 years	In the house of Mrs Mary Ann Howlison, Cumberland Street	95/796		8 March 1895	Revd R. Waddell, Presbyterian Minister
64	12 March 1895	John William Innes Marion Bain Cowie	John William Innes Marion Bain Cowie 💍 1895/3239	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	38 years 33 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 23 years	In the house of Mrs Agnes Cowie, Filleul Street	95/859		12 March 1895	Revd W. Will, Presbyterian Minister
65	12 March 1895	David Taylor Sarah King	David Taylor Sarah King 💍 1895/3255 David Buist Martha King 💍 1895/1202	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	30 years 24 years	Ravensbourne Ravensbourne	13 years 19 years	In the house of John King	95/821		12 March 1895	Revd W. Laycock, Methodist Minister
66	12 March 1895	David Marshall Jemima Sutherland	David Marshall Jemima Sutherland 💍 1895/29	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	26 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the Chalmers Presbyterian Church	95/834		12 March 1895	Revd J. M. Fraser, Presbyterian Minister
67	12 March 1895	Richard Bool Dorothea Conradine Juliana Schmely	Richard Bool Dorothea Conradine Juliane Schmelz 💍 1895/3259	Widower Widow	Fishmonger	43 years 29 years	Caversham Caversham	9 weeks 7 years	In the house of James Millar	95/825		12 March 1895	Revd M. J. B. Bennett, Baptist 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).