Intentions to Marry, 1896 January-June

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840409, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, June 11 2025

1896 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 233

District of Whanganui Quarter ending 31 March 1896

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
22	18 March 1896	David Shaw Mary Johnston	David Shaw Mary Johnston 💍 1896/3898	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 21	Whanganui Whanganui	24 years 1 year	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Whanganui	96/442		18 March 1896	Registrar Whanganui
23	19 March 1896	John Cullum Cassandra Mitchell	John Cullum Cassandra Mitchell 💍 1896/4284	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	32 19	Whanganui Whanganui	5 years 19 years	In the Residence of Mrs. Mary Mitchell, Ingestre St., Whanganui	96/455	Mary Mitchell, mother	19 March 1896	C. H. Garland, Wesleyan
24	20 March 1896	Edgar Munro Sarjeant Jenie MacLeod	Edgar Munro Sarjeant Jessie MacLeod 💍 1896/1382	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 19	Belair No. 3 Pine Line, Whanganui	15 years 7 years	In the Residence of Mr. Gregor MacLeod, No. 3 Pine Line, Whanganui	96/2244	Gregor MacLeod, father	20 March 1896	J. Ross, Presbyterian
25	23 March 1896	Herbert Grauder Williams Alice Lavina Wilson	Herbert Maunder Williams Alice Lavinia Wilson 💍 1896/4264	Widower Spinster	Painter	40 20	Whanganui Whanganui	4 years 1 year	St. John's Church of England, Whanganui	96/459	Susannah Gough, mother	23 March 1896	J. B. Maclean, Church of England
26	24 March 1896	George Alexander Hewellyn Pauling Ellen Gwendoline Bevan	George Alexander Llewellyn Pauling Ellen Gwendoline Bevan 💍 1896/4265	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	30 26	Wellington Whanganui	3 years 10 months	St. John's Church of England, Wellington	96/460		24 March 1896	J. B. Maclean, Church of England
27	25 March 1896	Roderick Hugh Mackenzie Isabella Neilson	Roderick Hugh McKenzie Isabella Neilson 💍 1896/4287	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	25 24	Whanganui Long Acre Valley, Batown	8 days 24 years	In the Residence of Mr. Robert Neilson	96/458		25 March 1896	Jas. Treadwell, Presbyterian
28	25 March 1896	Robert John Stretley Jane Reader	Robert John Stuckey Jane Reader 💍 1896/4266	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter	36 22	Whanganui Whanganui	3 years 1 year	In the Residence of Mr. H. Harris, Liverpool St., Whanganui	96/461		25 March 1896	H. Peters, Baptist

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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).