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 194

District of Palmerston North 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
7	15 January 1895	Henry Snowlean Alice Louisa Grace	Henry Mowlem Alice Louisa Grace 💍 1895/2728	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 years 26 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	14 years 14 years	Wesleyan Church, Palmerston North	95/371		15 January 1895	Revd. W. Lee, Wesleyan Minister, Palmerston North
8	17 January 1895	Adolph Sophus Berg Annie Rosetta	Adolph Sophus Berg Annie Rosetta Chilcott Wilson 💍 1895/2731	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Manager	23 years 25 years	Stoney Creek Palmerston North	23 years 2 years	At the house of Christopher Chilcott Wilson	95/374	Christopher Chilcott Wilson	17 January 1895	Revd. William Lee, Wesleyan Minister, Palmerston North
9	21 January 1895	Hugh David Scully Mary Helena St. Eard	Hugh David McCully Mary Helena McEwen 💍 1895/2834	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 years 19 years	Rarere Rarere	5 months 14 years	At the office of the Registrar, Palmerston North	95/356	Andrew Mc Ewan, father	21 January 1895	Robt. H. Keeling, Registrar, Palmerston North
10	21 January 1895	John Ball Emma Agnes Shaw	John Ball Emma Agnes Shaw 💍 1895/2729	Bachelor Spinster	Journalist	25 years 20 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	3 days 4 years	At the house of George Kitchen, Palmerston North	95/372	George Kitchen, Guardian	21 January 1895	Revd. William Lee, Wesleyan Minister, Palmerston North
11	28 January 1895	Edward Palmer Annie Kitchen formerly Crichton	Edward Palmer Annie Kitchen 💍 1895/2730	Bachelor Divorced	Farmer	30 years 30 years	Ashhurst Ashhurst	4 days 1 month	At the house of J. Crichton, Ashhurst	95/373		28 January 1895	Revd. W. Lee, Wesleyan Minister, Palmerston North
12	29 January 1895	John Shaw Gordon Nellie O'Callaghan	John Shaw Gordon Nellie O'Callaghan 💍 1895/3285	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer Dressmaker	29 years 23 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	8 years 18 months	St. Patrick's Church, Palmerston North	95/962		29 January 1895	Revd. J. F. Patterson, C.P., Palmerston North
13	7 February 1895	Samuel James Sanson Isabel Mary Barnham Knight	Samuel James Sanson Isabel Mary Varnham Knight 💍 1895/3685	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 years 20 years	Oranui Taonui	14 years 19 years	All Saints Church, Palmerston North	95/1330	Thomas Knight, father	7 February 1895	Revd. H. B. Harvey, Anglican Minister, Palmerston North

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).