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 754

District of Wairau Quarter ending 30 June 1896 Registrar Alfred Carter

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
26	23 May 1896	John Frederick Neal Marion Eliza Watson	John Frederick Neal Marion Eliza Watson 💍 1896/960	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 20	Springcreek Springcreek	22 years 2 years	Mr. John Watson's residence, Springcreek	96/1687	John Watson, Father	23 May 1896	The Rev. William Officer Robb
27	1 June 1896	Richard Oakley Wood Mary Ann Priddle	Richard Oakley Margaret Priddle 💍 1896/961	Bachelor Widow	Merchant	35 35	Blenheim Blenheim	8 years 13 years	In the residence of Mr. George Murray, Blenheim	96/1688	N.N. Woodbine	1 June 1896	The Venerable Archdeacon Thomas Samuel Grace
28	8 June 1896	Hermann Frederic Weichbrodt Ina Annie Anderson	Hermann Frederic Weihbrop Ina Annie Andersen 💍 1896/962	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	32 22	Blenheim Blenheim	5 years 22 years	In the residence of Mr. Peter Anderson, Blenheim	96/1689		8 June 1896	The Venerable Archdeacon Thomas Samuel Grace
29	15 June 1896	George Hunter Mary Horgan	George Hunter Mary Horgan 💍 1896/963	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 24	Tua Marina Fairhall, near Blenheim	26 years 24 years	St. Mary's Church, Blenheim	96/1690		15 June 1896	The Rev. William Goggan
30	16 June 1896	Thomas Harman Meads Mary Morrissey	Thomas Harman Meads Mary Morrissey 💍 1896/899	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	29 21	Blenheim Blenheim	5 weeks 14 years	In the residence of Mr. Hamilton, Blenheim	96/1691		16 June 1896	The Rev. William Officer Robb
31	23 June 1896	Charles George Stebbings Ada Annie Barker	Charles George Stebbings Ada Annie Barker 💍 1896/910	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 19	Wairau Valley Wairau Valley	1 year Since birth at Blenheim	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages for the Wairau district	96/1692	Edwin Barker, Father	23 June 1896	Alfred Carter, Registrar of Marriages
32	29 June 1896	John Maher Mary McGrath	John Maher Mary McGrath 💍 1896/916	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	32 25	New Renwick Road near Blenheim	17 years 6 years	St. Mary's Church, Blenheim	96/1693		29 June 1896	The Very Reverend John Macnamath

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).