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 781

District of Quirann 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
34	1 October 1895	John Henry Wilds Eliza McKnight	John Henry Wilds Eliza McKnight 💍 1895/185	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	33 25	Quirann Quirann	33 years 25 years	Residence of Mr. George Mc Knight, Quirann	95/3615	1 October 1895	Rev. Charles E. Beecroft, Wesleyan Minister
35	4 October 1895	William Harvey Frances Eliza Ward	William Harvey Frances Eliza Ward 💍 1895/157	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 21	Pareara Pareara	3 years 3 years	Wesleyan Church, Pareara	95/3616	4 October 1895	Rev. Charles E. Beecroft, Wesleyan Minister
36	8 October 1895	John McIntosh Bridget Harney	John McIntosh Bridget Harney 💍 1895/165	Bachelor Spinster	Hammer	46 29	Quirann Quirann	3 days 6 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Quirann	95/3623	8 October 1895	Rev. Louis Harlin, Roman Catholic Priest
37	16 October 1895	John Price Ellen Price	John Price Ellen Price 💍 1895/2188	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	46 42	Maronan Pareara	6 weeks 1 month	Episcopalian Church, Ashburton	95/3693	16 October 1895	Rev. Laurence Carsley Brady, Church of England Minister
38	18 October 1895	Walter Clement Burst younger Margaret Catherine Mahon	Walter Clement Burd Margaret Catherine Mahon 💍 1895/158	Bachelor Spinster	Miller	24 27	Quirann Quirann	12 years 22 years	Residence of Mr. Adam Mahon, Quirann	95/3674	18 October 1895	Rev. Charles E. Beecroft, Wesleyan Minister
39	21 October 1895	George Thomas Allen Florence Annie Ellis	George Thomas Allen Florence Annie Ellis 💍 1895/2359	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	27 23	Quirann Quirann	4 days 16 years	St. Mary's Episcopalian Church, Quirann	95/3842	21 October 1895	Rev. Archdeacon Henry W. Harper, Church of England Clergyman
40	4 November 1895	Thomas Leonard Roberts Sarah Jane Guilford	Thomas Leonard Roberts Sarah Jane Trilford 💍 1895/159	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	30 22	Quirann Quirann	9 months 2 years	Residence of Mr. Sarah Lowe, Quirann	95/3618	4 November 1895	Rev. Charles E. Beecroft, Wesleyan Minister
41	6 November 1895	James John Rapsey Rose Chivers	James John Rapsey Rose Chivers 💍 1895/160	Bachelor Spinster	Hammer	35 23	Pareara Beaconsfield	29 years 23 years	Residence of Mr. Charles Chivers, Beaconsfield	95/3619	6 November 1895	Rev. Charles E. Beecroft, Wesleyan Minister
42	9 November 1895	Sydney Richard Turnbull Annie Bowie	Saxby Richard Turnbull Annie Bowie 💍 1895/2360	Bachelor Spinster	Hammer	26 25	Quirann Quirann	3 months 25 years	St. Mary's Episcopalian Church, Quirann	95/3843	9 November 1895	Rev. Archdeacon Henry W. Harper, Church of England Minister
43	23 November 1895	Richard Chute Mary Minnie Murphy	Richard Chute Mary Murphy 💍 1895/4060	Bachelor Spinster	Wooldealer	33 27	Pleasant Point Kerrytown	6 years 3 weeks	Roman Catholic Chapel, Pleasant Point	95/4044	23 November 1895	Rev. Louis Fauvel, Roman Catholic Priest

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).