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 243

District of Wellington 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
61	29 February 1896	Ernest Alfred Wakeman Clarissa Sophia Walker	Ernest Alfred Wakemans Clarissa Sophia Walker 💍 1896/4370	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	23 19	Wellington Wellington	7 years 7 years	Presbyterian Church, Wellington Terrace	96/547	Cecil Sophia Walker, Mother	29 February 1896	Rev. C. J. Ogg
62	29 February 1896	Rudolph Sigismund Holschberg Ellen Gray	Rudolph Sigiemund Hirschberg Ellen Gray 💍 1896/4345	Bachelor Spinster	Auctioneer	32 23	Wellington Wellington	7 years 7 years	St. John's Church	96/544		2 March 1896	Rev. J. Paterson
63	2 March 1896	James Burt Jessie Albin Fisher	James Burt Jessie Albion Fisher 💍 1896/4307	Bachelor Spinster	Slaughterman	22 21	Ngauranga Wellington	6 weeks 10 days	Registrars Office, Wellington	96/479		2 March 1896	W. T. Wyatt
64	2 March 1896	Henry Hour Maud Alice Martin	Harry Hoar Maud Alice Martin 💍 1896/4675	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist	25 21	Wellington Wellington	7 years 7 years	Methodist Church, Taranaki Terrace	96/542		2 March 1896	Rev. James Guy
65	2 March 1896	William Ferguson Eaglewood Mary Ann Willis	William Fergus Eagle Mary Ann Wills 💍 1896/4308	Widower Widow	Brickmaker	50 42	Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 days	Registrars Office, Wellington	96/480		2 March 1896	W. T. Wyatt
66	3 March 1896	John Till Alice McGhee	John Till Alice Amelia McGhie 💍 1896/4354	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	32 22	Upper Hutt Upper Hutt	7 years 7 years	Anglican Church, Upper Hutt	96/555		3 March 1896	Rev. P. C. Mc. Carman
67	3 March 1896	George Henry Goodale Jessie Kate Howe	George Henry Goodall Jessie Kidd Howe 💍 1896/4338	Bachelor Spinster	Packer	23 24	Wellington Wellington	7 years 7 years	St. Mark's Church	96/535		3 March 1896	Rev. R. Coffey
68	9 March 1896	James Smith Edith Ann Read	James Smith Edith Ann Read 💍 1896/157	Bachelor Spinster	Police Constable	27 19	Wellington Wellington	3 days 7 years	Wesleyan Church, Ruahine Street	96/537	Sarah Ann Read, Mother	9 March 1896	Rev. Josiah Ward
69	10 March 1896	Anthony Bingham Waity Hettie Warm	Anthony Kington Watty Hettie Warn 💍 1896/4309	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith	26 21	Wellington Wellington	7 years 7 years	Registrars Office, Wellington	96/481		10 March 1896	W. T. Wyatt
70	13 March 1896	John Watts Nellie George	John Watts Nellie George 💍 1896/4310 John Date Press Alice George 💍 1897/4185	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	25 21	Wellington Wellington	11 months 11 months	Registrars Office, Wellington	96/482		13 March 1896	W. T. Wyatt
71	13 March 1896	Ernest Smith Baldwin Margaret Annie Hughes	Ernest Smith Baldwin Margaret Annie Hughes 💍 1896/811	Bachelor Spinster	Patent Agent	37 25	Wellington Wellington	2 months 2 months	House of Mrs. H. Hughes, Pirie Street, Taranaki Road	96/1571		13 March 1896	Rev. J. Paterson
72	16 March 1896	Charles Herbert Becker Janet Catto	Charles Herbert Beckett Janet Latto 💍 1896/4311	Bachelor Widow	Miner	32 29	Wellington Wellington	7 months 7 months	Registrars Office, Wellington	96/483		16 March 1896	W. T. Wyatt
73	16 March 1896	Fred Tomky Farr Isabella Eliza Smith	Fred Sankey Tarr Isabella Eliza Smith 💍 1896/4337	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 21	Wellington Wellington	7 years 7 years	St. Mark's Church	96/534		16 March 1896	Rev. R. Coffey
74	16 March 1896	Hugh McCraie Jennie Carter	Hugh McCrorie Jennie Carter 💍 1896/4312	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 25	Wellington Wellington	7 months 7 weeks	Registrars Office, Wellington	96/484		16 March 1896	W. T. Wyatt
75	18 March 1896	Archibald Merlet Martha Christine Harris	Archibald Merlet Martha Christina Hare 💍 1896/4343	Bachelor Widow	Commercial Traveller	29 28	Wellington Wellington	7 years 7 years	St. John's Church	96/543		18 March 1896	Rev. J. Paterson

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).