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 652

District of Hastings Quarter ending 30 June 1896 Registrar Robert Brathwaite

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
13	1 April 1896	Alfred Colyer Dinah Brant	Alfred Colyer Dinah Brant 💍 1896/1450	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	25 28	Lunamin, Hastings Hastings, H. Bay	7 years 10 years	Wesleyan Church, Hastings	96/2347		1 April 1896	Rev. George Frost
14	1 April 1896	Alfred Reid Florence Julia Harper Durie	Alfred Reid Florence Julia Harper Durie 💍 1896/824	Bachelor Spinster	Auctioneer	44 Full age	Hastings, H. Bay Turanganui, H. Bay	7 years 40 years	Church of Christ, Turanganui	96/1537		1 April 1896	Rev. Alfred Williams
15	10 April 1896	John Edward Some Ida Maud Nelson	John Edward Lane Ida Maud Nelson 💍 1896/1257	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager	31 27	Mangatahi, Hastings Waikohu, Hastings	5 years 20 years	St. Matthew's, Hastings	96/1403		10 April 1896	Rev. Arch. Williams
16	24 April 1896	Henry Bishop Lina Agnes Dennett	Henry Bishop Linda Agnes Dennett 💍 1896/1649	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	24 19	Hastings, H. Bay Hastings, H. Bay	18 months 5 years	St. Luke's, Havelock	96/2458	Mr. J. Dennett, Father	24 April 1896	Rev. Canon S. Hill
17	27 April 1896	Hugh Duncan Matheson Helen Tait Turnbull	Hugh Duncan Matheson Helen Tait Turnbull 💍 1896/1258	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	27 29	Kereru, H. Bay Hastings, H. Bay	6 months 3 days	House of Mr. J. C. Moore, Hastings	96/1404		27 April 1896	Rev. Alex Morrison
18	1 May 1896	John Collinge Charlotte Maria Watkins Collins	John Collinge Charlotte Maria Waters Collins 💍 1896/649	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	27 27	Hastings, H. Bay Hastings, H. Bay	3 days 4 years	Presbyterian Church, Hastings	96/1405		18 May 1896	Rev. Alex Morrison
19	22 May 1896	Matthew Johnson Matilda Ressell	Matthew Johnson Matilda Kessell 💍 1896/660	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	26 23	Hastings, H. Bay Hastings, H. Bay	3 years 4 months	Presbyterian Church, Hastings	96/1407		22 May 1896	Rev. Alex Morrison
20	23 May 1896	George Henry Heaps Lucy Lincoln	George Henry Heaps Lucy Lincoln 💍 1896/659	Bachelor Spinster	Stockman	26 24	Maraekakaho, H. Bay Hastings, H. Bay	12 years 24 years	St. Matthew's, Hastings	96/1406		23 May 1896	Rev. John Hobbs
21	26 May 1896	William Taylor Emily Phoebe Lowe	William Taylor Emily Phoebe Lowe 💍 1896/661	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	30 35	Whakarewa, Hastings, H. Bay Whakarewa, Hastings, H. Bay	9 months 24 years	House of Mr. W. M. Halyer	96/1408		26 May 1896	Alex Morrison

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).