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 803

District of Ashburton 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
936	31 March 1896	William Potter							For particulars	See mch. 21	2 April 1896	Revd. C. C. Brown
937	4 April 1896	William Morris Mary Miller Scott	William Morris Mary Miller Scott 💍 1896/996	Bachelor Spinster	Plate Layer	24 23	Westerfield Ashburton	1 year 4 years	Presbyterian Church, Ashburton	96/1777	4 April 1896	Revd. Geo. B. Inglis
938	4 April 1896	William Ash Elizabeth Jarvis	William Ash Elizabeth Jarvis 💍 1896/1005	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	21 23	Ashburton Ashburton	4 days 3 years	Wesleyan Church, Ashburton	96/1778	4 April 1896	Revd. Thomas G. Brooke
939	7 April 1896	Donald Frederick Knight Elizabeth Madeline Pilbrow	Donald Frederick Knight Elizabeth Madeline Pilbrow 💍 1896/49	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	26 20	Ashburton Trevorian	4 days 7 years	St. Stephen's Church, Ashburton	96/2380	9 April 1896	Revd. Thos. A. Hamilton
940	11 April 1896	John McHugh Dorothea Elizabeth Donithorne	John McHugh Philomena Smithel 💍 1896/1016	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	27 21	Ashburton Hampstead	8 years 18 years	Catholic Church, Ashburton	96/1779	11 April 1896	Revd. J. J. O'Donnell
941	18 April 1896	Francis John Bevan Sarah Jane Steel	Francis John Bevan Sarah Jane Steel 💍 1896/1019	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	29 28	Ashburton Ashburton	14 days 18 years	Wesleyan Church, Ashburton	96/1780	18 April 1896	Revd. J. G. Brooke
942	29 April 1896	William Walsh Mary Ann Small	William Walsh Mary Ann Small 💍 1896/4633	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	35 27	Ashburton Wheatstone	10 years 12 years	Roman Catholic Church at Ashburton	96/1781	29 April 1896	Revd. J. J. O'Donnell
943	2 May 1896	Henry Christopher Rawcliffe Louisa Griffin	Henry Christopher Raweleffo Louisa Griffin 💍 1896/1585	Widower Spinster	Contractor Domestic Servant	29 21	Ashburton Trevorian	4 days 20 years	St. Stephen's Church, Ashburton	96/2381	2 May 1896	Revd. Thos. A. Hamilton
944	9 May 1896	William John Leslie Sarah Byrne	William John Leslie Sarah Byrne 💍 1896/1020	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	30 24	Ashburton Winslow	5 days 5 days	Presbyterian Church, Ashburton	96/1783	9 May 1896	Revd. Geo. B. Inglis
945	15 May 1896	Charles Thomas Parsons Amy Podmore	Charles Thomas Parsons Amy Podmore 💍 1896/144	Bachelor Spinster	Salvation Officer Salvation Officer	31 27	Ashburton Ashburton	3 months 3 days	Salvation Fortress, Ashburton	96/1782	15 May 1896	Cornet Knight, Staff Captain Salvation Army

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).