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 392

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
28	29 January 1896	Andrew Williamson Jane Williams	Andrew Williamson Crichton Jane Williams 💍 1896/301	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Fitter	21 years 16 years	Dunedin Dunedin	21 years 16 years	In the house of William Williams, Hope Street, Dunedin	96/908	William Williams, father of minor	24 January 1896	Revd R. J. Porter, Presbyterian Minister
29	31 January 1896	Charles William Rattray Gertrude Emeline Neill	Charles William Rattray Gertrude Emeline Neill 💍 1896/4614	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	32 years 24 years	Mornington North East Valley	25 years 20 years	All Saints Church	96/909		31 January 1896	Revd E. P. Hood, Church of England Minister
30	1 February 1896	Samuel Drummond Lind Lilias Jean Agnes Robertson	Samuel Drummond Lind Lilian Jean Agnes Robertson 💍 1896/4669	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	21 years 21 years	Mornington Dunedin	10 days 1 month	In the house of Mrs. Dinary Faint, George Street	96/910		1 February 1896	Revd W. Hewitson, Presbyterian Minister
31	3 February 1896	William John Crawford Mary Jane Scoular	William John Crawford Mary Jane Scoular 💍 1896/303	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	28 years 29 years	Dunedin Caversham	4 years 29 years	In the house of Mary Jane Scoular	96/911		3 February 1896	Revd A. Sutton, Presbyterian Minister
32	4 February 1896	Alfred Walker Pearson Christina Bennet	Alfred Walker Pearson Christina Bennet 💍 1896/304	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 years 29 years	North East Valley Caversham	6 months 20 years	St. Andrews Church	96/912		4 February 1896	Revd R. Waddell, Presbyterian Minister
33	4 February 1896	William Joseph Clarke Mary Kendrick	William Joseph Clarke Mary Kendrick 💍 1896/305	Widower Spinster	Printer	53 years 39 years	North East Valley South Dunedin	2 years 1 month	In the house of Mary Grainger	96/913		4 February 1896	Revd R. Taylor, Wesleyan Minister
34	4 February 1896	William Scott Barbara Hughan	William Levitt Barbara Hughan 💍 1896/306	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 years 29 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 years	In the house of Thomas Hughan, Maitland Street, Dunedin	96/914		4 February 1896	Revd R. Waddell, Presbyterian Minister

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 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).