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 273

District of Christchurch 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
311	23 August 1895	William Jonas Sarah Willis	William Johnson Laura Willis 💍 1895/3514	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	22 21	Christchurch Sydenham	16 years 21 years	St. Saviours Church	95/2634	23 August 1895	Rev. R. A. Scott, Church of England
312	26 August 1895	Walter Hitchins Selina Piper	Martin Hitchins Julia Piper 💍 1895/1521	Widower Spinster	Paper Merchant	57 42	Christchurch Christchurch	25 years 35 years	Wesleyan Church	95/2892	26 August 1895	Rev. N. R. Yewbury, Wesleyan
313	27 August 1895	Robert Shand Lucia Smith	Robert Shand Lucia Smith 💍 1895/1298 Robert Scottow Lillie Smith 💍 1895/1767	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer	30 27	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 13 days	Holy Trinity Church	95/2609	27 August 1895	Rev. W. Parsons, Church of England
314	27 August 1895	John Walker Amy Christina Pratt	John Walker Amy Christina Pratt 💍 1895/1468	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	28 24	Christchurch Cashmere	4 years 3 years	House of Mrs. J. Pratt, Cashmere St.	95/2833	27 August 1895	Rev. W. Birch, Baptist
315	28 August 1895	William Whyte Elizabeth Torrens	William Whyte Elizabeth Torrens 💍 1895/1283	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer Nurse	26 26	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 26 years	St. Andrews Church	95/2618	28 August 1895	Rev. G. Webster, Presbyterian
316	29 August 1895	William Powell Annie Hutchison	William Powell Annie Hutchison 💍 1895/1331	Bachelor Spinster		29 21	Christchurch Hororata	1 week 2 years	St. Saviours Church, Malvern	95/2635	29 August 1895	Rev. R. A. Scott, Church of England
317	30 August 1895	John Morrison Amy Phillips	John Morrison Amy Phillips 💍 1895/1266	Bachelor Spinster	Designer Machinist	31 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 23 years	Registrar's Office	95/2600	30 August 1895	Registrar of Marriages
318	31 August 1895	Thomas Joseph Barnes Annie Taylor	Thomas Joseph Barnes Emily Ann Taylor 💍 1895/1310	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman Domestic	28 24	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 1 year	St. Saviours Church	95/2636	31 August 1895	Rev. R. A. Scott, Church of England

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).