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 827

District of Christchurch 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
225	20 May 1896	Walter John Horwell Alice Marriott	Walter John Honnell Alice Marrioth 💍 1896/1609	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 10 months	House of Mrs Marriott	96/2390	20 May 1896	Rev. W. T. Porter, Methodist Wesleyan
226	21 May 1896	Percy Ernest Stapleton Caroline Forrest Nixon	Percy Ernest Stapleton Caroline Forrest Nixon 💍 1896/1169	Bachelor Spinster	Miller	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 20 years	Registrars Office	96/1838	21 May 1896	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Verrall
227	22 May 1896	Edward Wilson Rosey Butterfield	Edward Wilson Rosey Butterfield 💍 1896/1118	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	32 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 24 years	House of Mr J. Butterfield	96/1881	21 May 1896	Rev. F. R. Inwood, Church of England
228	23 May 1896	Thomas McGuire Sarah Jitts	Thomas McGuire Sarah Tibbs 💍 1896/1119	Bachelor Spinster	Wool Sorter Servant	22 24	Christchurch Christchurch	15 months 22 years	House of W. Graham	96/1882	23 May 1896	Rev. Gordon Webster, Presbyterian
229	23 May 1896	Robert Johns Mary Walton	Robert Johns Mary Walton 💍 1896/1167	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 26	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	Registrars Office	96/1836	23 May 1896	Registrar of Marriages, Henry Adams
230	26 May 1896	Henry Arthur Stewart Susan Louisa Bennetts	Henry Arthur Stewart Susan Louise Bennetts 💍 1896/1128	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	27 30	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 30 years	St. Johns Church	96/1915	26 May 1896	Rev. Arch Allnutt, Church of England
231	26 May 1896	Ernest Harcourt Remmersen Annie Ada Hale	Ernest Harcourt Emmerson Annie Ada Hale 💍 1896/1168	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	30 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 24 years	Registrars Office	96/1837	26 May 1896	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Verrall

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).