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 740

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1896 Registrar W. D. Wyatt

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
204	23 June 1896	Jamieson Strachan Mary Josephine Sullivan	Samuel Strachan May Josephine Sullivan 💍 1896/948	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	30 27	Wellington Wellington	4 days 5 years	St. Mary of the Angels	96/1667		23 June 1896	Very Rev. J. Devoy
205	23 June 1896	John Henry Johns Minnie Hester Palmer	John Henry Johns Minnie Hester Palmer 💍 1896/2066	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	21 19	Wellington Wellington		Registrars Office, Wellington	96/2836	No relation in Colony	8 July 1896	W. D. Wyatt
206	24 June 1896	William Harry Hamph Eliza Ann Ford	William Henry Hampton Eliza Annie Free 💍 1896/959	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	21 21	Wellington Wellington	5 months 6 years	Salvation Army Barracks	96/1668		24 June 1896	Mr. W. Hoskin
207	24 June 1896	Walter Edward Mercer Alice Dorachoon	Walter Edward Mercer Alice Dora Moore 💍 1896/964	Bachelor Spinster	Hair Dresser	21 23	Wellington Wellington		Registrars Office, Wellington	96/1669		24 June 1896	W. D. Wyatt
208	26 June 1896	William Easton Effie Esther Harvie	William Orsborn Effie Esther Hardie 💍 1896/965	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	20 23	Wellington Wellington		St. Mary of Bride, Elizabeth St.	96/1670		26 June 1896	Rev. J. K. Elliott
209	26 June 1896	Benjamin Griffith Georgina Williamson	Benjamin Griffiths Georgina Williamson 💍 1896/966	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter	40 35	Wellington Wellington	14 days 1 week	Registrars Office, Wellington	96/1671		26 June 1896	W. D. Wyatt
210	29 June 1896	Michael O'Connor Julia Mary Harris	Michael O'Connor Julia Mary Hassett 💍 1896/4733	Bachelor Spinster	Tram Driver	20 28	Wellington Wellington		St. Mary of the Angels	96/2439		29 June 1896	Very Rev. J. Devoy
211	29 June 1896	Andreas Wije Halberg Jessie Andrew Rush		Bachelor Spinster	School Teacher	22 19	Johnsonville Johnsonville		House of Mrs. Tippett, Taranaki St.	96/2926		29 June 1896	Rev. Josiah Ward
212	30 June 1896	Heins Peter Jorgensen Alice Edmonds	Hans Peter Jorgensen Alice Edmonds 💍 1896/1654	Bachelor Widow	Mariner	20 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Mary of the Angels	96/2440		30 June 1896	Rev. J. Ainsworth
213	30 June 1896	Clement Tulley Edith Margaret Bout	Clement Tulley Edith Margaret Burt 💍 1896/4749	Bachelor Spinster	Moulder	25 24	Wellington Wellington	2 months 1 year	St. Marks Church	96/2928		30 June 1896	Rev. R. Coffey

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).