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 497

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
633	21 December 1896	Frank McIntyre Waters Emily Theresa Hewetson	Frank McIntyre Waters Emily Teresa Hewetson 💍 1896/3538	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 25	Jamaki Auckland	30 years 5 days	S. Mary's Church	96/4661		21 December 1896	Rev. T. Mac Murray, Church of England
634	21 December 1896	Charles Henry Adolph Grothan Mary Susan Greer	Charles Henry Adolph Grottian Mary Susan Greer 💍 1896/96	Widower Widow	Merchant, tailor	57 45	Auckland Auckland	2 weeks 2 weeks	Registrar's Office	96/3696		21 December 1896	S. Athyono, Registrar
635	21 December 1896	Stephen Chatwin Alderton Martha Susan Alderton	Stephen Chatwin Martha Susan Alderton 💍 1896/2848	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	25 20	Auckland Auckland	25 years 20 years	S. Lukes Church	96/3806	Frederick Alderton, Father	21 December 1896	Rev. J. Larkins, Church of England
636	22 December 1896	Frederick Bulmer Davis Hannah Frear	Frederick Bulmer Davis Hannah Frear 💍 1896/3433	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor's assistant	29 24	Mongonui Mongonui	3 years 24 years	S. Sepulchre's Church	96/4485		22 December 1896	Ven. Archd. B. J. Dudley, Church of England
637	22 December 1896	George William Gurley Margaret Aspden	George William Turley Margaret Aspden 💍 1896/2890	Bachelor Spinster	Coach painter	22 22	Auckland Auckland	12 years 8 years	Wesleyan Chapel, Grafton Road	96/3763		22 December 1896	Rev. H. R. Dewsbury, Wesleyan Methodist
638	22 December 1896	William Henry Wainhouse Ellen Rogers	William Henry Wainhouse Ellen Rogers 💍 1896/115	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	25 24	Auckland Auckland	5 months 24 years	Wesleyan Church, Kingsland	96/3789		22 December 1896	Rev. J. W. Bealie, Wesleyan
639	22 December 1896	Joseph Hurst Turner Gertrude Kingcome Reid	Joseph Hurst Turner Gertrude Kingcome Reid 💍 1896/2907	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	29 years 26	Auckland Auckland	4 years 10 years	Wesleyan Church, Gill Street	96/3756		22 December 1896	Rev. W. G. Moss, Wesleyan Methodist

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).