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 723

District of Whanganui Quarter ending 30 June 1896 Registrar The Registrar, Whanganui

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
38	22 April 1896	Patrick McGrath Maria Heffernan	Patrick McGrath Maria Hefferman 💍 1896/828 Patrick McGrath Ellen Hennessey 💍 1897/4605	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 25	Whanganui Whanganui	3 days 3 days	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Whanganui	96/1541		22 April 1896	C. H. This, Roman Catholic
39	25 April 1896	Isaac Crowe Jessie Milne	Isaac Crowe Jessie Milne 💍 1896/829	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 25	Whanganui Westmere	3 days 15 years	Residence of Mr. James Haggart, Westmere	96/1542		25 April 1896	James Treadwell, Presbyterian
40	4 May 1896	Frederick Brown Emily Louisa Heron	Frederick Brown Emily Louisa Heron 💍 1896/830	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	21 20	Castlecliff Castlecliff	3 years 40 months	Residence of Mrs. Cooper, Ridgway Street, Whanganui	96/1543	John Heron, Father	4 May 1896	G. Bond, Wesleyan
41	4 May 1896	John McGregor Florence Ann Beader	John McGregor Florence Ann Beaver 💍 1896/831	Widower Spinster	Farmer	51 25	No. 3 Line, Whanganui Whanganui	24 years 4 years	Residence of Mr. A. Elliott, Guyton Street, Whanganui	96/1544		4 May 1896	James Treadwell, Presbyterian
42	21 May 1896	Joshua Harris Mary Filler	Joshua Harris May Fitter 💍 1896/833	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	31 18	Whanganui Whanganui	12 months 17 years	Office of The Registrar of Marriages, Whanganui	96/1545	John Fitter, Father	21 May 1896	The Registrar, Whanganui
43	21 May 1896	John William Henry Delves Elizabeth Nicole Hood	John William Henry Delves Elizabeth Nicoll Hord 💍 1896/834	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	29 27	Whanganui Whanganui	17 years 27 years	Residence of Mr. James Hood, Wicksteed Street, Whanganui	96/1546		21 May 1896	James Treadwell, Presbyterian
44	21 May 1896	Patrick George Mullins Edith Ann Green	Patrick George Mullins Edith Ann Green 💍 1896/835	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	29 27	Whanganui Whanganui	3 months 30 months	Office of The Registrar of Marriages, Whanganui	96/1547		21 May 1896	The Registrar, Whanganui

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).