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 368

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
21	21 January 1895	Herbert Palmer Bryant Alice Essex	Herbert Palmer Bryant Alice Essex 💍 1895/3541	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman	28 years 20 years	Dunedin South Dunedin	5 years 14 years	In the house of Charles Essex	95/799	Charles Essex, father of minor	24 January 1895	Revd Isaac Jolly, Presbyterian Minister
22	22 January 1895	Dugald Paterson Jean Mitchell	Dugald Patersen Junior Jean Mitchell 💍 1895/3987	Bachelor Spinster	Cooper	23 years 23 years	Mornington North East Valley	5 years 10 years	In the house of David Mitchell	95/841		25 January 1895	Revd J. Gibb, Presbyterian Minister
23	23 January 1895	Alexander Jones Charlotte Kent	Alexander Jones Charlotte Kent 💍 1895/3121	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	37 years 40 years	Roslyn Dunedin	1 week 7 years	In the Office of Registrar of Marriages	95/786		28 January 1895	H. J. Hall, Registrar of Marriages
24	24 January 1895	Stephen James Gilbert Mary Douglas	Stephen James Gilbert Mary Douglas 💍 1895/3908	Widower Widow	Stoker	37 years 36 years	Caversham South Dunedin	11 years 4 months	In the Office of Registrar of Marriages	95/787		28 January 1895	H. J. Hall, Registrar of Marriages
25	25 January 1895	Samuel Lister junr Helen Alexander	Samuel Lister Helen Alexander 💍 1895/3542	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	24 years 24 years	South Dunedin South Dunedin	9 years 15 years	In the house of Hector Alexander	95/992		28 January 1895	Revd Isaac Jolly, Presbyterian Minister
26	26 January 1895	David King Whyte Alexandrina McAdam Swanson	David King Whyte Alexandrina McAdam Swanson 💍 1895/3135	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	29 years 27 years	Mornington Mornington	3 days 17 years	In the Presbyterian Church	95/809		29 January 1895	Revd R. J. Porter, Presbyterian Minister
27	27 January 1895	Frederick Olsen Catherine Cameron	Frederick Olsen Catherine Cameron 💍 1895/3132 Frederick Pearce Jessie Cameron 💍 1896/4236	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	47 years 52 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages	95/788		31 January 1895	H. J. Hall, Registrar

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).