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 246

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
91	26 March 1896	William Arthur Hodgkinson Edith Cauth Carming	William Arthur Hodgkinson Edith Cawton Canning 💍 1896/4701	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 38	Wellington Wellington	5 days 1 day	St. Peters Church	96/541		26 March 1896	Rev. W. C. Waters
92	27 March 1896	Benjamin Wade Jamieson Mary Emilia Jamieson	Benjamin Wade Mary Emilia Jamieson 💍 1896/810	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 19	Johnsonville Petone	7 years 2 months	House of Mr Jamieson, Petone	96/1570	John Jamieson, father	27 March 1896	Mr. A. F. Turner
93	27 March 1896	George Alexander Llewellyn Puring Ellen Gwendoline Leven	George Alexander Llewellyn Pauling Ellen Gwendoline Bevan 💍 1896/4265	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	30 26	Wellington Wanganui	7 years 9 months	Anglican Church, Wanganui	96/460		27 March 1896	Rev. T. B. Maclean
94	28 March 1896	James Alexander Hair Margaret Ingelhart	James Alexander Hair Margaret Urquhart 💍 1896/4340	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 26	Wellington Wellington	3 days 2 months	Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace	96/538		28 March 1896	Rev. J. R. Elliott
95	30 March 1896	Mark John Thomas Learner Florence Atkinson	Mark John Thomas Leamen Florence Atkinson 💍 1896/1526	Bachelor Spinster	Copper Smith	25 22	Wellington Wellington	8 months 7 years	House of Mr. Salter, Brougham Street	96/2274		30 March 1896	Rev. Josiah Ward
96	30 March 1896	Donald Munro Martin Catherine Guthrie	Donald Munro Martin Catherine Duthie 💍 1896/4702	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	40 26	Wellington Wellington	9 months 10 days	Congregational Church, Wellington Terrace	96/548		30 March 1896	Rev. J. R. Glasson
97	30 March 1896	Thomas Cameron Waters Fanny Green	Thomas Cameron Watson Fanny Drew 💍 1896/4341	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Manager	26 25	Wellington Wellington	14 months 7 years	House of Rev. J. K. Elliott, Panama Street	96/539		30 March 1896	Rev. J. K. Elliott
98	31 March 1896	Henry Robert Hall May Curtis	Henry Robert Hall Oswin May Curtis 💍 1896/809	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 22	Wellington Wellington	7 years 7 years	St. Pauls Cathedral	96/1569		31 March 1896	Rev. T. H. Sprott

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).