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 361

District of Timaru Quarter ending 31 March 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
11	12 February 1896	James Bramahan Margaret Hoare	James Brosnahan Margaret Hoare 💍 1896/4626	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 years 24 years	Levels Plains Kerrytown	20 years 12 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Pleasant Point	96/835		12 February 1896	Very Rev. Theophilus de Menant, Rev. Chesnais, Roman Catholic Priest
12	1 February 1896	Alexander Fraser Minnie Mary Clarkson	Alexander Fraser Minnie Mary Clarkson 💍 1896/4627	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	24 years 21 years	Pleasant Point Timaru	6 months 7 years	Residence of Mr. Thomas Nicholson, Clarkson, Timaru	96/836		1 February 1896	Mr. George Aldridge, Church of Christ Minister
13	1 February 1896	Stewart McClelland Margaret Gibson	Stewart McClelland Mary Margaret Gibson 💍 1896/4005	Widower Spinster	Baker	32 years 21 years	Claremont Timaru	11 years 16 years	Presbyterian Church, Timaru	96/837		1 February 1896	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
14	22 February 1896	William Matthew Richards Florence Alexander	William Matthew Richards Florence Alexander 💍 1896/4628	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 years 20 years	Pareora Fairview	15 years 20 years	Residence of Mr. Jonas Alexander, Fairview	96/838	Jonas Alexander, father	22 February 1896	Rev. Charles E. Beecroft, Wesleyan Minister
15	28 February 1896	Edward William Foster Annie Peters	Edward William Foster Annie Peters 💍 1896/4006	Bachelor Spinster	Miller	30 years 29 years	Timaru Timaru	30 years 13 years	Wesleyan Parsonage, Timaru	96/839		28 February 1896	Rev. Charles E. Beecroft, Wesleyan Minister
16	2 March 1896	James Morgan Ellen M. Kenzie	James Morgan Ellen McKenzie 💍 1896/3990	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	40 years 47 years	Timaru Timaru	20 years 8 years	Residence of Rev. Joseph Sharp, Waitohi Road	96/840		2 March 1896	Rev. Joseph Sharp, Primitive Methodist Minister
17	2 March 1896	John William Holdgate Henrietta Wood	John William Holdgate Henrietta Wood 💍 1896/3991	Bachelor Spinster	Timber yard man	28 years 22 years	Timaru Timaru	28 years 13 years	Wesleyan Church, Timaru	96/841		2 March 1896	Rev. Charles E. Beecroft, Wesleyan Minister
18	2 March 1896	William McRae Jane Crossan	William McRae Jane Crossan 💍 1896/182	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 years 19 years	Timaru Timaru	3 weeks 3 weeks	Registrar's Office, Timaru	96/851	Samuel Crossan, father	2 March 1896	Thomas Howley, Registrar of Marriages, Timaru
19	6 March 1896	Oswald Grant Watt Emily Wheatley	Donald Grant Watt Emily Wheatley 💍 1896/3992	Widower Spinster	Carpenter	35 years 33 years	St. Andrews Timaru	2 years 1 month	Residence of Mr. John Wheatley, Timaru	96/842		6 March 1896	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
20	19 March 1896	Ernest Muchmore Ada Gardner	Ernest Muchmore Ada Gardner 💍 1896/3993	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Builder Tailoress	30 years 22 years	Timaru Timaru	15 years 22 years	Wesleyan Church, Timaru	96/843		19 March 1896	Rev. Charles E. Beecroft, Wesleyan Minister

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).