Intentions to Marry, 1895 July-December

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840408, 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 005

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 September 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
255	16 July 1895	Alexander Captain Mitchell Stewart Amy Crouch	Alexander Captain Mitchell Stewart Amy Crouch 💍 1895/872	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 20	Auckland Auckland	30 years 20 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	95/2147	George Crouch, father	16 July 1895	E. Lyons, Registrar
256	17 July 1895	James King Rosetta Emily Bendley	James King Rosetta Emily Bensley 💍 1895/3885	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 18	Auckland Auckland	10 years 10 years	House of W. A. E. Bendley, Kyber Pass	95/2199	Alfred Edwin Bendley, father	17 July 1895	Rev. R. S. West, Presbyterian
257	17 July 1895	Charles Alfred Burrow Emma Jane Morgan	Charles Alfred Burrow Emma Jane Morgan 💍 1895/3891	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	27 22	Auckland Auckland	15 years 22 years	S. Matthews, Auckland	95/2235		17 July 1895	Church of England
258	18 July 1895	Frank Mahon Jervis Nellie Buddle	Frank Mahon Jervis Nellie Buddle 💍 1895/906	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	25 20	Dargaville Auckland	6 years 4 years	House of W. H. A. D. Buddle, City Road, Auckland	95/2192	William Dixon Buddle, father	18 July 1895	Rev. J. Crump, Wesleyan Methodist
259	20 July 1895	William Francis Short Mary Alice Bush	William Francis Short Mary Alice Bush 💍 1895/3886	Bachelor Spinster	Wood & Stone Carver	26 26	Auckland Auckland	20 years 26 years	House of W. B. Bush, Newmarket	95/2200		20 July 1895	Rev. R. Scott West, Presbyterian
260	22 July 1895	William John Thompson Ellen Gillson	William John Thompson Ellen Gillson 💍 1895/874	Bachelor Widow	Contractor	33 36	Auckland Auckland	10 years 20 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	95/2149		22 July 1895	E. Lyons, Registrar
261	23 July 1895	John Ward Emily Henrietta Fraser	John Ward Emily Henrietta Fraser 💍 1895/918	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 26	Tamaki Onehunga	25 years 4 years	House of W. S. Doherty, Papatoetoe	95/2186		23 July 1895	Rev. D. J. Steele, Presbyterian
262	23 July 1895	Sidney Edward Daniel Dye Adeline Catherine O'Brien	Sidney Edward Daniel Dye Adeline Catherine O'Brien 💍 1895/892	Bachelor Spinster	Cab driver	20 18	Auckland Auckland	19 years 18 years	House of W. W. G. O'Brien, Milford & Ponsonby	95/2176	Thomas Sidney Dye, William George O'Brien	23 July 1895	Rev. R. F. Macnicol, Presbyterian
263	24 July 1895	Robert Duffin Sarah McLeod	Robert Duffin Sarah McLeod 💍 1895/907	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	24 20	Auckland Auckland	16 years 3 months	House of W. G. Read, Howe Street, Auckland	95/2193	William McLeod	24 July 1895	Rev. J. Blaikie, Baptist

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).