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 280

District of Christchurch 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
22	22 January 1895	Charles Foster Roberton Sophie Pearse	Charles Foster Roberton Sophia Pearse 💍 1895/943	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 30	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 2 years	Wesleyan Church, Papanui	95/1662	17 January 1895	Rev. C. C. Harrison, Wesleyan
23	23 January 1895	Frederick Kleemeen Georgina Lilley	Frederick Kleeman Georgina Lilley 💍 1895/466	Bachelor Widow	Draughtsman	27 34	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 4 years	House of Mrs. Lilley, Allen Street, Christchurch	95/1650	17 January 1895	Rev. F. H. Moline, Presbyterian
24	24 January 1895	Harding Parsons Matthews Elera Trulice	Harding Parsons Matthews Eliza Smillie 💍 1895/41	Bachelor Spinster	Fitter	34 28	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 3 days	St. Andrews Manse, Mucau St, Christchurch	95/694	18 January 1895	Rev. G. Webster, Presbyterian
25	25 January 1895	Harry Muschamp Elizabeth Cook	Harry Muschamp Elizabeth Cook 💍 1895/2995	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	32 26	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 26 years	St. Michaels Church, Christchurch	95/688	19 January 1895	Rev. A. W. Averill, Church of England
26	26 January 1895	John Middleton Young Jane Elizabeth Stewart	John Middleton Young Jane Elizabeth Stewart 💍 1895/3823	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	38 28	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 12 days	House of Mrs. Stewart, Newlands Gully	95/728	21 January 1895	Rev. W. J. Gow, Presbyterian
27	27 January 1895	Edward James Woodford Wilson Hester Annie Hill	Edward James Elford Wilson Hester Annie Hill 💍 1895/3044	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	21 25	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 3 months	Registrars Office, Christchurch	95/608	21 January 1895	Registrar of Marriages
28	28 January 1895	Henry Woods Martha Jones	Henry Woods Martha Dorcas Toms 💍 1895/2984	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Shop Assistant	23 25	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 17 years	St. Marys Church, Addington	95/701	21 January 1895	Rev. W. J. Bean, Church of England

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).