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 286

District of Akaroa 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
11	3 July 1896	Valentine Mekalich Fredrica Raomena Rasmussen	Valentine Mekalick Fredrica Rasmena Rasmussen 💍 1896/2156	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 21	Le Bon's Bay, Akaroa Le Bon's Bay, Akaroa	4 days 16 years	At the house of Wilhelm Rasmussen, Le Bon's Bay	96/3013		3 July 1896	Albert Bruntnell, Salvation Army
12	10 July 1896	John Scott Dodds Kate Ellen Penn	John Scott Dodds Kate Ellen Penn 💍 1896/3481	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	28 30	Akaroa Akaroa	5 years 20 years	At the house of Thomas Penn, Akaroa	96/4553		10 July 1896	A. M. Wright, Presbyterian
13	28 July 1896	John Christopher Hartley Elizabeth Mary Chapman	John Christopher Hartley Elizabeth Mary Chapman 💍 1896/4759	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	20 21	Okain's Bay Okain's Bay	20 years 2 years	At the house of Walter Geo. Harris, Okain's Bay	96/3011	Charles Hartley, father	28 July 1896	E. H. Blakiston, Church of England
14	17 August 1896	George Edgar Wells Myra Giddens	George Edgar Wells Myra Giddens 💍 1896/4537	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 17	Chorlton Barry's Bay	13 years 17 years	At the office of Registrar of Marriages, Akaroa	96/3010	George Giddens, father	17 August 1896	H. W. Dawson, Registrar of Marriages
15	19 August 1896	Louis Hugh Grant Harriet Jane Hawes	Louis Hugh Grant Harriet Jane Hawes 💍 1896/2176	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	26 18	Okain's Bay Okain's Bay	2 years 12 years	At the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Akaroa	96/3009	Thomas Hawes, father	19 August 1896	H. W. Dawson, Registrar of Marriages
16	24 August 1896	William Francis McCullough Alice Crotty	William Francis McCullough Alice Crotty 💍 1896/2157	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Laborer	20 20	Le Bon's Bay Le Bon's Bay	20 years 20 years	At the house of William McCullough, Le Bon's Bay	96/3014	George Crotty, father	24 August 1896	Com. Barnett, Baptist
17	31 August 1896	William Henry Herbert Clark Mary Jane Brew	William Henry Herbert Clark Mary Jane Brew 💍 1896/2437	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	25 21	Little River Barry's Bay	3 years 21 years	Bible Christian Church, Little River	96/3123		31 August 1896	A. R. Stevens, Bible Christian
18	1 September 1896	James Kirkby Mary Alice Baxter	James Kirkby Mary Alice Baxter 💍 1896/2158	Widower Spinster	Farmer	41 33	Le Bon's Bay Le Bon's Bay	3 weeks 10 years	Baptist Church, Le Bon's Bay	96/3015		1 September 1896	J. M. Barnett, Baptist

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 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).