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 464

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
483	24 December 1895	Alexander Morrieon Mary Read	Alexander Murray Mary Ewart 💍 1895/2045 Alexander Morrison Mary Maud Bangat 💍 1895/1732 Alexander Johnstone Mary McDonald 💍 1895/808	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	22 19	Coromandel Naichola	3 years 1 year	House of R. Presbyterian	95/3139	Paul, Father	24 December 1895	Rev. R. Presbyterian
484	24 December 1895	Charles George Taylor Margaret Alicia Holden	Charles George Taylor Margaret Alicia Holden 💍 1895/1726	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	30 18	Whangarei Auckland	4 years 18 years	Church of England	95/3131	Father	24 December 1895	Rev. M. Calder, Church of England
485	28 December 1895	Francis Courtenay Sutherland Adrienne Eva Blanche Rorke		Bachelor Spinster	Medical Practitioner	28 25	Paeroa Auckland	18 years 25 years	Church of England	96/64		28 December 1895	Rev. G. Boler, Church of England
486	30 December 1895	John Henry Cartwright Eva Harriett Wade	John Henry Cartwright Eva Harriett Wade 💍 1896/4082	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 23	Matakohe Auckland	12 years 23 years	House of Inc. W. Creek	96/131		30 December 1895	Rev. R. S. Boler, Presbyterian
487	30 December 1895	John Francis Droyer Isabella Jane Brows	John Francis Dwyer Isabella Jane Brown 💍 1895/1733	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	30 23	Whangarei Woodville	30 years 3 years	Vincent Street	95/3140		30 December 1895	Rev. R. Presbyterian
488	30 December 1895	Richard Spence Liddle Ada Seacquist		Bachelor Spinster	Stevedore	38 28	Maizoa North Auckland	7 years 20 years	House of No. Aually Street	96/42		30 December 1895	Rev. Presbyterian
489	30 December 1895	Frederick William Little Annie Elizabeth Bridges	Frederick William Little Annie Elizabeth Bridges 💍 1895/112	Bachelor Widow	Miner	37 34	Thames Thames	10 years 27 years	Office	95/3085		30 December 1895	H. Lyons, 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).