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 204

District of Wanganui 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
10	10 February 1895	George Reid Waterly Elizabeth Fellow	George Newman Elizabeth Nelson 💍 1895/3630 George David Macartney Elizabeth Silby 💍 1895/2856	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	22 21	Wanganui Wanganui	22 years 15 years	In the residence of Mr. H. Murray, St. Hill Street, Wanganui	95/390		14 February 1895	Harold Peters, Baptist
11	11 February 1895	Thomas John Price Margaret Campbell Willis	Thomas John Price Margaret Samson Wilkie 💍 1895/2793	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	26 19	Wanganui Wanganui	18 years 15 years	In the residence of Mr. William Willis, Russell Vale, Wanganui	95/391	William Willis, Father	14 February 1895	C. H. Garland, Wesleyan
12	13 February 1895	George Matthew Letitia Polor	George Matthews Letitia Pope 💍 1895/2788	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	29 21	Wanganui Wanganui	10 years 1 year	In the Presbyterian Church, Wanganui	95/399		15 February 1895	James Treadwell, Presbyterian
13	13 February 1895	George Samuel Brown Catherine Scott Murray	George Samuel Brown Catherine Scott Murray 💍 1895/2789	Bachelor Spinster	Mill Hand	24 19	Wanganui Wanganui	4 years 15 years	In the residence of Mr. J. A. Murray, Victoria Avenue, Wanganui	95/400	J. A. Murray, Father	25 February 1895	James Treadwell, Presbyterian
14	28 February 1895	Frederick Dyce Lilian Mary Fowles	Frederick Dyer Lilian Mary Fownes 💍 1895/2783 Frederick Nagel Lilian Burgess 💍 1895/2723	Widower Spinster	Gardener	39 26	Mosstown Mosstown	5 years 6 weeks	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	95/394		28 February 1895	John Bates, Registrar
15	2 March 1895	Alexander Murdock Jemima Jane Simpson	Alexander Murdock McLeod Jemima Paul Simpson 💍 1895/2792	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 31	Wanganui Wanganui	2 years 3 days	In the residence of Mr. Chas. Gage, Durietown	95/401		2 March 1895	James Treadwell, Presbyterian
16	6 March 1895	Daniel Jones Jeanie Adamson Crichton	Daniel Jones Jeanie Adamson Crichton 💍 1895/2794	Widower Spinster	Farmer	38 32	Wanganui Wanganui	38 years 12 years	In the residence of Mr. Alexander Crichton, Wanganui	95/404		6 March 1895	C. H. Garland, Wesleyan
17	8 March 1895	John McCallum Florence Emily Morton	John McCallum Florence Emily Marton 💍 1895/2867	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	24 24	Wanganui Wanganui	3 months 4 years	In the Church of England, Wanganui	95/406		8 March 1895	D. B. Maclean, Church of England
18	23 March 1895	William John Ward Mary Jane Church	William John Ward Mary Jane Church 💍 1895/2784	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 19	Kai Iwi Wapongaro	20 years 10 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	95/408	Elizabeth Church, Mother	23 March 1895	John Bates, 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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).