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 877

District of Riverton 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
442	9 October 1895	James Henry Tinton Mary Russell	James Henry Newton Mary Russell 💍 1895/1673	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 30	Pahi Colac	5 years 1 year	House of Mr. Tinton, Pahi	95/4053		9 October 1895	Rev. G. W. Christian, Church of England
443	12 October 1895	John Ford Nora Mary Callaghan	John Ford Nora Mary Callaghan 💍 1895/2469	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 22	Fairfax Fairfax	9 years 10 years	Roman Catholic Church, Riverton	95/3982		12 October 1895	Rev. W. Walsh, Roman Catholic
444	29 October 1895	Charles Murphy Euphemia Stirling	Charles Murphy Euphemia Stirling 💍 1895/2243	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 20	Colac Riverton	1 year 13 years	House of Mr. John Stirling, Riverton	95/3749		29 October 1895	Rev. G. W. Christian, Church of England
445	3 November 1895	Louis Garden Jessie Bruce Foster	Louis Garden Jessie Bruce Foster 💍 1895/2240	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 20	Pahi Orepuki	15 months 12 months	Wesleyan Church, Riverton	95/3746	Peter Foster, father of Jessie Bruce Foster	3 November 1895	Rev. J. A. Lochore, Wesleyan
446	4 November 1895	Frederick Nichol Elizabeth Jane Letcher	Frederick Nichol Elizabeth Jane Letcher 💍 1895/2241	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 18	Drummond Drummond	9 years 13 months	House of Mr. W. Letcher, Drummond	95/3747	W. Letcher, father of Elizabeth Jane Letcher	4 November 1895	Rev. J. A. Lochore, Wesleyan
447	12 November 1895	Douglas Hamishaw Catherine Elizabeth Hamilton	Douglas Arnnishaw Catherine Elizabeth Hamilton 💍 1895/2238	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	25 21	Thornbury Thornbury	4 months 6 months	Office of Registrar, Riverton	95/3744		12 November 1895	Alex. Eyes, Registrar, Riverton
448	28 December 1895	James Clode Eliza Flowers	James Clode Eliza Flowers 💍 1895/2239	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Dressmaker	29 28	Colac Riverton	9 months 15 months	House of Mr. Flowers, Riverton	95/3745		28 December 1895	Rev. Thos. Neave, Presbyterian
449	30 December 1895	Robert Fordyce Green Grace Margaret Blair Stewart	James Robert Frederick Green Grace Margaret Blair Stewart 💍 1895/2242	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	31 25	Riverton Riverton	15 months 20 months	House of Mr. Robert Stewart, Riverton	95/3748		30 December 1895	Rev. J. A. Lochore, Wesleyan

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).