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 862

District of Mount Grey 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
180	9 April 1896	William Love Catherine McLeod	William Love Catherine McLeod 💍 1896/1605 William Jason Hill Catherine McLeod 💍 1896/4197	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	31 33	Christchurch Mt Grey Downs	3 years 30 years	In the house of John McLeod, Mt Grey Downs	96/2385		9 April 1896	Rev. P. R. Mours, Presbyterian Minister, Rangiora
181	21 April 1896	John Hanna Mary Gardener Fuller	John Hanna Mary Gardiner Fuller 💍 1896/1648	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 20	Sefton Balcairn	24 years 9 years	Sefton Presbyterian Church	96/2457	William Henry Fuller, father of minor	21 April 1896	Rev. I. Gow, Presbyterian Minister, Kaiapoi
182	23 April 1896	Henry Smith Louisa Gertrude Moore	Henry Smith Louisa Gertrude Moore 💍 1896/1184	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 21	Amberley Amberley	22 years 21 years	Church of England, Amberley	96/1945		25 April 1896	Rev. C. A. Tobin, English Church, Amberley
183	28 April 1896	John Grierson Doyle Sarah Jane Murchison	John Grierson Doyle Sarah Jane Murchison 💍 1896/1186	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 19	Amberley Amberley	3 days 19 years	Presbyterian Church, Amberley	96/1947	Agnes Murchison, Mother of minor	28 April 1896	Rev. W. McGregor, Presbyterian Minister, Amberley
184	4 May 1896	Thomas Morrison Edith Hyland	Thomas Morrison Edith Hyland 💍 1896/1187	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 22	Leithfield Leithfield	24 years 4 days	Brackenfield Catholic Church	96/1948		4 May 1896	Rev. Patrick Treacy, Catholic Priest, Amberley
185	11 May 1896	Stephen John Miller Alice Maud Reid	Stephen John Milner Alice Maud Reid 💍 1896/1185	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	29 20	Amberley Amberley	29 years 20 years	Church of England, Amberley	96/1946	James Reid, Father of Minor	11 May 1896	Rev. C. A. Tobin, English Church Minister, Amberley
186	26 May 1896	Frederick Mureus Charlotte Elizabeth Pemberton	Frederick Marcus Field Charlotte Elizabeth Pemberton 💍 1896/1183	Widower Spinster	Merchant	29 20	Sefton Sefton	4 days 20 years	English Church, Sefton	96/1944	Charles French, Father of Minor	26 May 1896	Rev. Herbert East, English Church, Leithfield

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).