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 388

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1896 Registrar William Joseph Hall

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
1	3 January 1896	William Houston Johanna Mitchell	William Houston Johanna Mitchell 💍 1896/4611	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	29 years 29 years	Dunedin Dunedin	18 years 10 years	In the house of William Houston, Roslyn	96/883	3 January 1896	Revd W. Hewitson, Presbyterian Minister
2	3 January 1896	George Black Ellie Logan	George Black Ellie Logan 💍 1896/205	Bachelor Widow	Miner	44 years 46 years	Dunedin Dunedin	5 days 5 days	In the house of Revd William Hewitson	96/884	3 January 1896	Revd W. Hewitson, Presbyterian Minister
3	3 January 1896	William Mowbray Mary Grace	William Mowbray Mary Grace 💍 1896/4612	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	33 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	5 days 5 days	In the house of Revd William Laycock	96/885	3 January 1896	Revd W. Laycock, Methodist Minister
4	3 January 1896	Ernest William George Herbert Watts Emily Isabella Salter	Ernest William George Herbert Watts Emily Isabella Salter 💍 1896/206	Bachelor Spinster	Lithographic Artist	26 years 26 years	North East Valley North East Valley	1 month 2 weeks	In St. Martin's Church, North East Valley	96/886	3 January 1896	Revd Isaac Richards, Church of England Minister
5	4 January 1896	Cornelius Greaney Theresa Donohue	Cornelius Greaney Theresa Donohue 💍 1896/4668	Bachelor Spinster	Cabman	29 years 24 years	Dunedin Dunedin	21 years 3 months	In St. Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin	96/887	4 January 1896	Revd P. Murphy, Roman Catholic Priest
6	6 January 1896	Duncan Andrew McLennan Annie Neil	Duncan Andrew McLennan Annie Neil 💍 1896/207	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	32 years 28 years	Maori Hill Green Island	32 years 3 days	In the house of Alexander Neil	96/888	4 January 1896	Revd D. Dutton, Presbyterian Minister
7	6 January 1896	Ralph Waldo Clarkeons Mary Elizabeth Kirkwoods	Ralph Waldo Clarkson Mary Elizabeth Kirkwood 💍 1896/4643	Bachelor Spinster	Company's Manager	29 years 24 years	Dunedin Devonport	3 years 10 years	In the Presbyterian Church, Devonport Auckland	96/43	6 January 1896	Revd Robert F. Macnicol, Presbyterian Minister

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).