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 442

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 December 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
371	12 October 1895	Thomas Nan Kwai Margaret McMenamy	Thomas Wan Kwai Margaret McMenamy 💍 1895/116	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	30 32	Auckland Auckland	5 years 12 months	St. Patrick's Church, Auckland	95/3089	12 October 1895	Rev. S. Haddren, Roman Catholic
372	12 October 1895	Albert Edgar Hammond Georgina Eliza Burgess	Albert Edgar Hammond Georgina Eliza Burgess 💍 1895/2584	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 21	Tauranga Auckland	11 years 10 months	Primitive Methodist Church, Newmarket	95/4083	12 October 1895	Rev. S. H. Guardee, Primitive Methodist
373	14 October 1895	John Ramage Elizabeth Thom	John Ramage Elizabeth Thorn 💍 1895/1718	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 22	Auckland Auckland	10 years 22 months	House of Mr. Peters	95/3098	14 October 1895	Rev. W. Peters, Baptist
374	14 October 1895	Samuel John Harding Martha Courtney	Samuel John Harding Martha Courtney 💍 1895/1679	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	34 37	Auckland Auckland	34 years 37 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	95/3058	14 October 1895	H. W. Lyons, Registrar
375	15 October 1895	Arthur Osborne Shepherd Mary Bamford Hesketh	Arthur Osborn Shipherd Mary Bamford Hesketh 💍 1895/2475	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	31 25	Auckland Remuera	31 years 25 years	St. Mark's Church, Remuera	95/3988	15 October 1895	Rev. W. Beatty, Church of England
376	15 October 1895	William Stanley Cooper Mabel Constance Shortt	William Stanley Cooper Mabel Constance Shortt 💍 1895/1738	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	25 23	Auckland Auckland	15 years 20 years	St. Matthew's Church, Auckland	95/3122	15 October 1895	Rev. T. Calder, Church of England
377	16 October 1895	Patrick Michael Geraghty Charlotte Attrill	Patrick Michael Geraghty Charlotte Attrill 💍 1895/1757	Bachelor Spinster	Flax-dresser	23 22	Rangiriri Rangiriri	4 years 20 months	Roman Catholic Church, Pukemiro	95/3167	16 October 1895	Very Rev. H. W. Donald, Roman Catholic

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).