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 279

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
341	23 September 1895	Charles Henry Besley Victoria Griggs	Charles Henry Besley Annie Maria Victoria Margretta Grigg 💍 1895/1319	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 20	Christchurch Belfast	4 days 4 days	Presbyterian Church, Belfast	95/2615	23 September 1895	Rev. W. Griggs
342	23 September 1895	James Watts Eva Webb	James Watts Eva Webb 💍 1895/1294	Widower Spinster	Chimney Sweep Housekeeper	38 25	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 2 years	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	95/2605	23 September 1895	Registrar of Marriages, J. W. Packman
343	23 September 1895	Frederick Hamill Annie Mary Brough		Bachelor Spinster	Boilermaker	31 22	Christchurch Christchurch	1 month 5 months	Roman Catholic Church, Barbadoes Street	95/2952	23 September 1895	Right Rev. J. J. Grimes, Bishop, Roman Catholic
344	24 September 1895	John Giles Agnes McMillan	John Giles Agnes McMillan 💍 1895/1307 John Riley Jane Glenholmes Greer McMillan 💍 1895/2529	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	39 24	Christchurch Sydenham	4 days 14 days	Presbyterian Church, Colombo Street	95/2658	24 September 1895	Rev. J. L. Simpson
345	24 September 1895	William Powell Hayward Caroline Fraser	William Powell Hayward Caroline Marianne Fraser 💍 1895/2330	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	23 21	Christchurch Addington	23 years 21 years	St. Mary's Church, Addington	95/3589	24 September 1895	Rev. W. S. Bean, Christchurch
346	30 September 1895	William Fordham Annie Collins Drake		Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Domestic	36 29	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 1 week	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	95/3578	30 September 1895	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Poulkerson
347	30 September 1895	James Breeds Mary Elizabeth Way	James Breeds Mary Elizabeth Way 💍 1895/2334	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	33 30	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 30 years	St. Luke's Church, Christchurch	95/3591	30 September 1895	Rev. Arch. Digby, Church of England
348	30 September 1895	Robert William Tolley Mary Pengelly	Robert William Foley May Pengelly 💍 1895/1295	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer Tailoress	28 21	Christchurch Christchurch	28 years 21 years	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	95/2606	30 September 1895	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Poulkerson

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).