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 443

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
378	17 October 1895	William Parker Daisy Kidd	William Parker McGowan Daisy Kidd 💍 1895/1680	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	30 19	Auckland Auckland	2 years 14 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	95/3059	Susannah Kidd, mother	17 October 1895	R. H. Lyons, Registrar
379	18 October 1895	William Sands Dickey Hannah Toyne		Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	24 22	Auckland Auckland	24 years 22 years	St. Andrew's Church, Epsom	95/3166		18 October 1895	Rev. H. E. Gillam, Church of England
380	18 October 1895	Henry Butler Charlotte Anna Davoren	Henry Butler Charlotte Anna Davoren 💍 1895/1682	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	24 24	Auckland Auckland	24 years 24 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	95/3060		18 October 1895	R. H. Lyons, Registrar
381	18 October 1895	Albert Edward Margaret Jane Scott	Albert Edwards Margaret Jane Scott 💍 1895/1683	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 22	Nairongomai Auckland	10 years 3 days	Registrar's Office, Auckland	95/3061		18 October 1895	R. H. Lyons, Registrar
382	18 October 1895	John Lock Laura Sophia Alexander	John Lock Laura Sophia Alexander 💍 1895/1722	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	39 22	Auckland Auckland	12 years 22 years	St. Andrew's Church, Ponsonby	95/3127		18 October 1895	Rev. F. Gould, Church of England
383	21 October 1895	George Warren Isabella French	George Warren Isabella French 💍 1895/3836	Bachelor Spinster	Dentist	26 24	Auckland Auckland	26 years 24 years	House of Mr. Albert	95/3132		21 October 1895	Rev. R. S. West, Presbyterian
384	21 October 1895	William James Hannah Lizzie Harker	William James Frederick Hayter Hannah Lizzie Harker 💍 1895/1684	Bachelor Spinster	Platelayer	22 21	Hamilton Hamilton	3 years 10 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	95/3062		21 October 1895	R. 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).