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 790

District of Hokitika Quarter ending 30 June 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
14	4 April 1896	John Hourdley Selina Showers		Widower Spinster	Sawmiller Sawmiller	62 40	Stafford Stafford	2 years 1 year	Residence of John Hourdley, Westland, Stafford	96/1768		4 April 1896	Rev. John Smith, Wesleyan Minister, Stafford. A. G. Cresswell
15	11 April 1896	Henry Ralston Sarah Lea Ladyman		Bachelor Spinster	Miner Miner	28 27	Ida Valley Ida Valley	8 years 8 years	Registrar's Office, Hokitika	96/1764		11 April 1896	Registrar of Marriages, Hokitika
16	15 April 1896	Edward McLadyman Annie E. Showers		Bachelor Spinster	Miner Miner	21 21	Hokitika Hokitika	21 years 21 years	Church of England, Hokitika	96/1759		15 April 1896	Rev. W. G. Haywood
17	29 April 1896	John Douglas Selina Anderson	John Douglas Abolina Anderson 💍 1896/997	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Miner	24 23	Woodstock Woodstock	24 years 7 days	Registrar's Office, Kumara	96/1769		29 April 1896	Rev. T. R. Harding, Presbyterian Minister, Kumara
18	29 April 1896	G. Hausmann Mary Gresham		Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Clerk	40 20	Hokitika Hokitika	14 years 16 years	Church of England, Hokitika	96/1760	A. G. Cresswell (Father)	29 April 1896	Rev. S. Hamilton, Presbyterian Minister, Hokitika
19	1 May 1896	John A. Smith Sarah E. Hancock		Bachelor Widow	Surveyor Surveyor	56 53	Hokitika Hokitika	28 years 28 years	All Saints, Hokitika	96/1761		1 May 1896	Rev. W. G. Haywood, Church of England, Hokitika
20	7 May 1896	William E. Johnston Annie E. Stewart	William Eli Johnston Annie Christina Gebhardt 💍 1896/985	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Farmer	26 23	Ross Ross	26 years 5 years	Presbyterian Church, Ross	96/1762		7 May 1896	Rev. W. Douglas, Presbyterian Minister, Ross
21	10 June 1896	Shakamana Hawau Miriam Lewis		Bachelor Widow	Farmer Farmer	26 24	Ross Ross	2 years 1 year	Registrar's Office, Hokitika	96/1765		10 June 1896	Registrar of Marriages, Hokitika
22	15 June 1896	William Fitzgerald Catherine Fitzgerald	William Fitzgerald Catherine Agnes Fitzgerald 💍 1896/986	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Labourer	25 27	Hokitika Stafford	15 years 1 month	St. Mary's Church, Hokitika	96/1763		15 June 1896	Rev. C. J. Martin, St. Mary's, Hokitika
23	24 June 1896	John Geddes Agatha T. O'Donovan		Widower Spinster	Clerk Clerk	56 28	Hokitika Hokitika	30 years 4 months	Registrar's Office, Hokitika	96/1766		24 June 1896	Registrar of Marriages, Hokitika

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).