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 400

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
80	7 March 1896	James Stewart Helen McKenzie	James Stewart Helen McKenzie 💍 1896/236 James Morgan Ellen McKenzie 💍 1896/3990	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter	23 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	12 years 3 years	In the Baptist Church	96/948		17 March 1896	Revd A. Horth, Baptist Minister
81	17 March 1896	Alexander Ross Jane Seed Leapstick	Alexander Ross Jane Seed Capstick 💍 1896/1809	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	23 years 21 years	South Dunedin South Dunedin	9 years 10 years	In the Presbyterian Church	96/2433		17 March 1896	Revd Isaac Jolly, Presbyterian Minister
82	18 March 1896	John Kitto Emma Sweetland Piller	John Kitto Emma Sweetland Piller 💍 1896/234	Widower Spinster	Miner	58 years 43 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 6 months	In All Saints Church	96/946		18 March 1896	Revd E. P. Lachemaile, Church of England Minister
83	20 March 1896	Alexander Menzies Junior Sarah Ann Hall	Alexander Menzies Junr Sarah Ann Hall 💍 1896/1579 Alexander McStay Sarah Jane Hall 💍 1897/4585	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	35 years 35 years	Caversham Dunedin	1 week 3 years	In the house of Alexander Menzies Junior	96/2279		20 March 1896	Revd D. Sutton, Presbyterian Minister
84	21 March 1896	Ernest Arthur Hellyer Mary Alice Boorman	Ernest Arthur Hellyer Mary Alice Boonman 💍 1896/237	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 years 20 years	North East Harbour North East Harbour	21 years 20 years	In the house of Samuel Boorman	96/949	Samuel Boorman, father of minor	21 March 1896	Revd A. Greig, Presbyterian Minister
85	24 March 1896	James Hubbard Mary Ann Coulter	James Hubbard Mary Ann Coulter 💍 1896/1371	Bachelor Spinster	Tailors Presser	21 years 17 years	Dunedin Dunedin	19 years 10 years	In the Trinity Church	96/2030	James Coulter, father of minor	24 March 1896	Revd H. Ready, Bible Christian Minister
86	24 March 1896	Eric Whitcombe Jane Morton Henderson	Eric Whitcomb Jane Newton Henderson 💍 1896/235	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	33 years 24 years	Dunedin Mornington	3 days 13 years	In St. Andrews Church	96/947		24 March 1896	Revd R. Traddell, 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).