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 843

District of Ellesmere 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
5	1 April 1896	George Whitelaw Euphemia Mary Petcaithley	George Whitelaw Euphemia Mary Pitcaithley 💍 1896/1611	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	33 34	Leagement Pigeon Bay	8 months 34 years	Residence of Mr Petcaithley at Pigeon Bay	96/2470		1 April 1896	G. K. Stowell
6	4 April 1896	Carl Jesse Ewenson Elizabeth Maruland		Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker domestic	28 28	Leeston Leeston	3 years 10 years	in the English Church at Leeston	96/1936		4 April 1896	N. A. Watson
7	9 April 1896	Tom William Braythorne Agnes Elizabeth Millar	Tom William Craythorne Agnes Elizabeth Millar 💍 1896/1175	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer domestic	25 20	Prebbleton Brookside	25 years 1 month	in the English Church at Dunsandel	96/1937	Margaret Millar	9 April 1896	N. A. Watson
8	8 May 1896	Robert Arthur Stewart Blanche Mary Chapman	Robert Arthur Stewart Blanche Mary Chapman 💍 1896/1589	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer domestic	21 19	Leeston Greenpark	8 months 6 months	in the Presbyterian Manse at Leeston	96/2394	Mr Chapman, father of bride	8 May 1896	W. Grant
9	30 May 1896	Alexander McLaughlan Martha Rothery	Alexander McLaughlin Martha Rothery 💍 1896/1188	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer domestic	30 25	Tauweru Doyleston	7 years 1 month	in the English Church at Southbridge	96/1927		30 May 1896	P. P. Cooke
10	15 June 1896	Alexander Thompson Margaret Bremner Craig	Alexander Thompson Margaret Bremner Craig 💍 1896/1190	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 29	Killinchy Southbridge	29 years 29 years	in the residence of Mrs Craig at Southbridge	96/1929		15 June 1896	James Mackie
11	24 June 1896	William Burgess Helen Mary Fraser	William Burgess Helen Mary Fraser 💍 1896/3480	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	28 18	Dunsandel Dunsandel	28 years 3 years	in the residence of Alexander Fraser, Dunsandel	96/4552	Alexander Fraser, father of bride	24 June 1896	Alexander McLean Wright
12	29 June 1896	Thomas Bowen Eliza Wilson	Thomas Bowis Eliza Wilson 💍 1896/1189	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer domestic	24 32	Brookside Christchurch	2 years 4 years	in the Town Hall, Leeston	96/1928		29 June 1896	Staff Captain Ernest Knight

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).