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 828

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
232	26 May 1896	Benjamin Johnson Ellen Wagstaff	Benjamin Johnson Eleanor Wagstaff 💍 1896/1113	Bachelor Spinster	Sampler Operative	26 26	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 26 years	St. Luke's Church	96/1899		26 May 1896	Rev. Arch. Lingard, Church of England
233	27 May 1896	Reginald Herbert Dorset Maude Rose Heslie Revell	Reginald Herbert Dorset Maude Rose Hester Renall 💍 1896/1100	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Operative	37 27	Christchurch Avonside	3 days 3 days	Holy Trinity Church	96/1887		27 May 1896	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Church of England
234	27 May 1896	Philip Metz Marie Louise Cars	Philip Metry Marie Louise Caro 💍 1896/1105	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	35 23	Christchurch House of Mrs. J. Cars, Petersboro St., Chch	12 years 23 years	House of Mrs. J. Cars, Petersboro St., Chch	96/1892		27 May 1896	Mr. J. Fack, Hebrew
235	28 May 1896	John Goodman Catherine Walsh	John Goodman Catherine Walsh 💍 1896/1127	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Domestic	27 28	Christchurch Christchurch	10 days 13 years	Roman Catholic Church, St. Mary's, Chch	96/1914		28 May 1896	Rev. M. J. Marnan, Roman Catholic
236	28 May 1896	Thomas Hogg Amelia Fitzgerald	Thomas Hogg Amelia Fitzgerald 💍 1896/1103	Bachelor Spinster	Manufacturer Operative	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 10 years	Roman Catholic Church, Barbadoes St., Chch	96/1890		28 May 1896	Rev. J. Cummings, Roman Catholic
237	28 May 1896	William John Musson Ethel Painter	William John Musson Ethel Paintin 💍 1896/1099	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Operative	18 17	Christchurch St. Albans	6 years 17 years	House of Mr. F. Painter, Cullens St., St. Albans	96/1886	Robert Musson, father of groom; F. Painter, father of bride	28 May 1896	Rev. J. A. Seaford, Wesleyan
238	29 May 1896	Frederick William Archbold Emily Muriel Wells	Frederick William Thrusher Archbold Emily Minetta Weller 💍 1896/1126	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Operative	19 17	Christchurch Petersboro St., Chch	1 year 17 years	House of Mrs. Wells, Petersboro St., Chch	96/1913	Joseph Archbold, father of groom; Jane Wells, mother of bride	29 May 1896	Rev. J. Dawson, Methodist

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).