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 960

District of Invercargill 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
41	14 April 1896	William Valentine Robb Ada Mary Lovell	William Valentine Robb Ada May Lovell 💍 1896/1327	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Guard	28 19	Invercargill Gore	1 month 9 years	Congregational Church	96/2134	Edwin Charles Lovell, father	14 April 1896	Rev. A. H. Wallace
42	14 April 1896	William Blay Caroline Helen Audrice	William Blay Caroline Helen Undull 💍 1896/1417	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Employee	28 26	Invercargill Bluff	2 years 3 years	House of Thomas Audrice	96/2001		14 April 1896	Rev. John Gibson
43	16 April 1896	Thomas William Stannaway Sarah Ann Richards	Thomas William Stanway Sarah Ann Richards 💍 1896/1318	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmill Hand	20 22	Woodend Woodend	5 years 22 years	House of David Ardley, East Road	96/2148	William Stannaway, father	16 April 1896	Rev. Wm. Woollass
44	14 April 1896	Thomas William Connell Ellen Dwyer	Thomas William O'Connell Ellen Dwyer 💍 1896/1480	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 22	Invercargill Seaward Bush	26 years 12 years	St. Mary's Church, Clyde Street	96/2158		14 April 1896	Rev. Nicholas Breaker
45	18 April 1896	William Fisher Johnson Alice Caroline Summer	William Fisher Johnson Alice Caroline Mussen 💍 1896/4588	Bachelor Spinster	Hardware Salesman	25 20	Invercargill Invercargill	2 years 1 year	Church of England, Tay Street	See Entry No. 49	Under Section 21, See Entry No. 49, Legal Guardian since date of this certificate
46	20 April 1896	Alfred Edwin Smith Agnes McAlister	Affred Edwin Smith Agnes Macalister 💍 1896/1319	Bachelor Spinster	Dentist	24 20	Invercargill Invercargill	18 months 19 years	House of James McAlister, East Road	96/2150	James McAlister, father	20 April 1896	Rev. Geo. Lindsay
49	22 April 1896	Robert Nelson Thompson Mary Keady	Robert Nelson Thompson Mary Keady 💍 1896/1313	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	24 25	West Plains West Plains	4 days 25 years	Office of the Registrar	96/2143		22 April 1896	J. W. Wilkin, Registrar

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).