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 214

District of Wairau 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
20	20 August 1895	George William Twafford Mary Elizabeth Carmine	George William Swafford Mary Elizabeth Carmine 💍 1895/1246	Bachelor Spinster	Storesman	21 25	Springbrook Blenheim	5 years 2 years	Residence of Mr. Hodgson, Blenheim	95/2511		21 August 1895	The Ven. Archdeacon, J.S. Grace
21	21 August 1895	John Richard Timmins Clara Gill Timmins	John Richard Timms Clara Gill 💍 1895/3871	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	22 21	Oddstone, Wairau Valley Wairau Valley	Since birth 3 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim	95/2510		22 August 1895	Alfred Carter, Registrar
22	22 August 1895	Abraham Hodgson Amelia (Minnie) Gifford	Abraham Hodgson Amelia Gifford 💍 1895/1247	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 31	Blenheim Spring Creek	7 years Since birth	Residence of James Gifford, Spring Creek	95/2512		22 August 1895	The Ven. Archdeacon, J.S. Grace
23	23 August 1895	Richard Philip Maxted Jane Cameron	Richard Philip Maxted Louisa Jane Cameron 💍 1895/1228	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	20 25	Blenheim Blenheim	18 months Since birth	Residence of Mr. Mathew Hegglun, Grove Road, Blenheim	95/2514	Richard Maxted, Father	28 August 1895	The Rev. W.O. Robb
24	24 August 1895	Alexander William Dives Gertrude Beatrice Chittenden	Alexander William Birss Gertrude Beatrice Chittenden 💍 1895/1248	Bachelor Spinster	Cordial Manufacturer	25 15	Blenheim (temporarily) Rangiora (permanent)	4 days 1 year	Church of the Nativity, Blenheim	95/2513	Daniel Chittenden, Father	30 August 1895	The Ven. Archdeacon, J.S. Grace
25	25 August 1895	Joseph Robert Rothwell Margaret Timmins	Joseph Robert Rothwell Margaret Timms 💍 1895/1229	Bachelor Spinster	Book	27 29	Flaxbourne Wairau Valley	1 year Since birth	Presbyterian Church, Blenheim	95/2515		30 August 1895	W.O. Robb

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).