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 874

District of Timaru 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
25	1 April 1896	Hugh Goudale, the younger Margaret Jane Armstrong	Hugh Youdale Margaret Jane Armstrong 💍 1896/1196	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 years 23 years	Claremont Claremont	15 years 12 years	Residence of Mr. Matthew Armstrong, Claremont	96/1982		1 April 1896	Rev. Charles E. Beecroft, Wesleyan Minister
26	6 April 1896	Alexander Findlater Chapne Jane Ross	Alexander Findlater Cheyne Jane Ross 💍 1896/1213	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Dressmaker	26 years 29 years	Timaru Timaru	3 days 11 months	Residence of Mrs. Jessie Ross, Timaru	96/1995		6 April 1896	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
27	6 April 1896	Robert Irwin the younger Annie Margaret Munro	Robert Irwin Jr Annie Margaret Munro 💍 1896/1212	Bachelor Spinster	School Teacher	24 years 20 years	Timaru Kingsdown	3 days 15 years	Presbyterian Church, Timaru	96/1974	Donald Munro, Father	6 April 1896	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
28	7 April 1896	Charles John Ryan Eliza D'Hudson	Charles John Ryan Eliza J'Anson 💍 1896/1218	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 years 23 years	Timaru Timaru	3 weeks 4 days	Roman Catholic Presbytery, Timaru	96/1981		7 April 1896	Rev. John Tubman, Roman Catholic Priest
29	10 April 1896	Archibald Davie Agnes Scott	Archibald Davie Agnes Scott 💍 1896/1214	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 years 18 years	Washdyke Washdyke	12 years 5 years	Residence of Rev. William Gillies, Timaru	96/1976	Jane Scott, Mother. Father dead	10 April 1896	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
30	14 April 1896	Robert Wyllie Isabella Bell	Robert Wyllie Isabella Bell 💍 1896/1215	Bachelor Spinster	Architect	39 years 32 years	Timaru Kensington	3 days 3 days	Residence of Mr. William Davies, Kensington	96/1977		14 April 1896	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
31	18 April 1896	Ambrose Chiaroni Mary Morrison	Ambrose Chiaroni Mary Morrison 💍 1896/1216	Widower Spinster	Importer Housekeeper	64 years 44 years	Timaru Timaru	4 days 5 days	Residence of Rev. William Gillies, Timaru	96/1978		18 April 1896	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
32	20 April 1896	Wilfred William Flockton Minnie Foster	Wilfrid William Flockton Minnie Foster 💍 1896/148	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Tailoress	24 years 26 years	Timaru Timaru	4 days 26 years	Residence of Ven. Archdeacon H.W. Harper, Timaru	96/1979		20 April 1896	Ven. Archdeacon H.W. Harper, Church of England Clergyman
33	21 April 1896	George Hayward Mary Keene	George Hayward Mary Keene 💍 1896/1217	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger	22 years 19 years	Washdyke Timaru	2 years 19 years	Residence of Mrs. Emma Keene, Timaru	96/1980	Emma Keene, Mother. Father dead	21 April 1896	Rev. Joseph Sharp, Primitive Methodist Minister
34	24 April 1896	Timothy Brosnahan Bridget O'Neill	Michael Curran Bridget O'Neill 💍 1897/4181	Widower Spinster	Farmer	39 years 28	Levels Plain Levels Plain	21 years 10 days	Roman Catholic Chapel, Temuka	96/2404		24 April 1896	Rev. Louis Gauvel, Roman Catholic Priest

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).