Intentions to Marry, 1896 July-December

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840410, 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 202

District of Rangitikei Quarter ending 30 September 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
12	6 July 1896	John Henry Burnett Emma Louisa Grant	John Henry Burnett Emma Louisa Grant 💍 1896/3485	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 20	Marton Marton	1 year 8 months	M. H. Grant's	96/4557	Herin Grant, Father	6 July 1896	Reverend Jas. Thomas
13	15 July 1896	William Lee Louisa Ellen Johns	William Lee Louisa Ellen Johns 💍 1896/2017	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 21	Marton Marton	1 day 1 day	Office of Registrar of Marriages	96/2809		18 July 1896	W. J. Chaney
14	22 July 1896	Thomas William Neagle Rose Ashby	Thomas William Neagle Rose Ashby 💍 1896/2018	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	28 19	Greatford Greatford	3 months 19 years	Office of Registrar of Marriages	96/2810	Thomas Ashby, Father	22 July 1896	W. J. Chaney
15	25 July 1896	Thomas Lawson Wood Margaret Malcolm Leonard	Thomas Dawson Wood Margaret Malcolm Leonard 💍 1896/2664	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	36 24	Marton Bonny Glen	4 days 5 weeks	M. E. W. McKen's	96/3554		25 July 1896	Reverend John Ross
16	31 August 1896	Francis Giles Hilton Jessie Moyes	Francis Giles Hilton Jessie Moyes 💍 1896/4635	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	24 25	Marton Marton	2 years 18 years	Presbyterian Church	96/2811		31 August 1896	Reverend D. Gordon
17	2 September 1896	William Hammond Margaret McFarlane	William Hammond Margaret McFarlane 💍 1896/2088	Widower Spinster	Farmer	45 28	Marton Wellington	11 days 9 months	Capt. John Coleman's Residence, Wellington	96/2885		2 September 1896	Reverend Jas. Paterson
18	22 September 1896	Arthur Edward Siggel Margaret Harriet Bacon	Arthur Edward Sijnal Margaret Harriet Bason 💍 1896/4721	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 18	Porewa Marton	4 days 8 years	M. E. W. Moody's	96/2812	Step-Father	22 September 1896	Reverend D. Gordon
19	24 September 1896	Frederick Louis Young Annie Still	Frederick Louis Young Annie Still 💍 1896/4747	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger	32 33	Marton Upper Turakina	5 years 33 years	M. E. W. Still's Residence	96/2813		24 September 1896	Reverend D. Gordon

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).