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 509

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 June 1896 Registrar E. S. Lyons

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
246	15 May 1896	George White Anne Elizabeth Chapman	George White Annie Elizabeth Chapman 💍 1896/449	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	24 21	Onehunga Onehunga	20 years 6 years	House of Mr. E. Lowden, 6 Green Lane	96/1198		15 May 1896	Rev. R. F. Ferguson, Presbyterian
247	16 May 1896	William Woods Myra Scarrott	William Woods Myra Scarrott 💍 1896/412	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	21 22	Auckland Auckland	21 years 22 years	St. Patrick's Cathedral	96/1183		16 May 1896	Rev. W. J. Madden, Roman Catholic
248	16 May 1896	Ernest Henry Haydon Isabella McNickle	Ernest Henry Haydon Isabella McNickle 💍 1896/418	Bachelor Spinster	Jeweller	23 24	Auckland Auckland	12 years 15 years	House of Mr. W. McNickle, Franklin Road	96/1188		16 May 1896	Rev. R. F. Macnicol, Presbyterian
249	18 May 1896	Henry Richard Stewart Letitia Nickall	Henry Richard Stewart Letitia Nickalls 💍 1896/420	Widower Spinster	Chemist	32 20	Auckland Onehunga	11 years 20 years	Church of England	96/1190	Robert Nickall, father	18 May 1896	Rev. O. R. Hewett, Church of England
250	18 May 1896	George James Thorpe Martha Battams	George James Thorpe Martha Battams 💍 1896/448	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	23 17	Auckland Auckland	1 week 1 year	House of Mr. S. Battams, Wellington Street	96/1197	Sarah Battams, mother	18 May 1896	Rev. R. R. Raine, Primitive Methodist
251	18 May 1896	Valentine Herbert Barr Eugenie Janet Boyd	Valentine Herbert Barr Eugince Janet Boyd 💍 1896/1411	Bachelor Spinster	Medical Practitioner	27 25	Takapuna Takapuna	1 year 7 years	St. Peter's Church, Takapuna	96/2307		18 May 1896	Rev. H. S. L. Davies, Church of England
252	18 May 1896	Walter Humby Hill Amanda Sarah Hill	Walter Humby Amanda Sarah Hill 💍 1896/319	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 19	Auckland Auckland	22 years 19 years	Registrar's Office	96/1085	Charles Orlando Hill, father	18 May 1896	E. S. Lyons, 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 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).