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 473

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 December 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
475	7 October 1896	Thomas Latham Phillips Selina Phillips	Thomas Latham Selina Phillips 💍 1896/2788	Widower Spinster	Engineer	55 43	Auckland Auckland	20 years	St. Paul's Church, Auckland	96/3723	7 October 1896	Rev. C. H. Saloom, Ch. of Eng.
476	8 October 1896	Hector Hugh George Florence Couldrey	Hector Hugh George Florence Couldrey 💍 1896/3247	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	31 26	Auckland Karaka	31 years 26 years	House of R. G. Bolen, Karaka	96/4272	8 October 1896	Rev. R. G. Bolen, Ch. of Eng.
477	9 October 1896	Edward Tait Reason Frances Lavina Tennent	Edward Tait Frances Lavinia Tennent 💍 1896/2790	Bachelor Spinster	Monumental Mason	41 32	Auckland Auckland	80 years 10 years	House of R. J. Tennent, Stanley Street	96/3724	9 October 1896	Rev. C. H. Saloom, Ch. of Eng.
478	10 October 1896	John David Jones Mary Elizabeth Pollard	John David Jones Mary Elizabeth Pollard 💍 1896/2850	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	26 21	Auckland Auckland	26 years 8 weeks	Church of England, Auckland	96/3808	10 October 1896	Rev. N. E. Gillam, Ch. of Eng.
479	10 October 1896	Walter Denison Frances Mitcham	Walter Denison Frances Mitcham 💍 1896/3566	Bachelor Spinster	Jeweller	25 21	Auckland Auckland	20 years 7 years	House of E. H. Soper, Auckland	96/4646	10 October 1896	Rev. E. H. Soper, Baptist
480	12 October 1896	William Robert Lowey Constance Mahala Jenkins	William Robert Lowry Constance Mahala Jenkins 💍 1896/104	Bachelor Spinster	Police Constable	26 20	Rotorua Auckland	15 months 9 years	All Saints Church, Auckland	96/3704	12 October 1896	Rev. E. H. Cowrie, Ch. of Eng.
481	12 October 1896	William Accrington Andrews Eleanor Annie Clare Atkinson	William Accrington Andrews Eleanor Annie Clara Atkinson 💍 1896/3555	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	31 25	Auckland Auckland	1 year 7 years	St. Mary's Church, Parnell	96/4656	12 October 1896	Rev. G. H. Macmurray, Ch. of Eng.

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).