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 597

District of Whangarei 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
157	7 November 1896	Percy William Mock Emily Wood	Percy William Moore Emily Wood 💍 1896/2549	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	24 23	Whangarei Whangarei	8 years 23 years	Presbyterian Church, Whangarei	96/3460		7 November 1896	Rev. G. Y. Roby
158	7 November 1896	Ernest Price Harriet Cage	Ernest Price Harriett Edge 💍 1896/2548	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 23	Tangahoe Whangarei	2 years 23 years	Office of Registrar	96/3459		7 November 1896	The Registrar
159	30 November 1896	Robert Miller Willia Hyats	Robert Miller Nettie Hyatt 💍 1896/3306	Bachelor Widow	Bushman	49 38	Tiripaka Tiripaka	8 years 1 year	Residence of A. Lee, Tiripaka	96/4283		30 November 1896	Rev. L. L. Jubits
160	3 December 1896	Theophilus Jarman Bessie Shandley	Theophilus Jarman Bessie Shandley 💍 1896/2834	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	23 17	Kamo Kamo	4 years 17 years	Residence of Bride's Parents, Kamo	96/3816	James Shandley, Father	3 December 1896	Rev. J. S. Hawken
161	4 December 1896	Arthur Randolph Pitman Grace Emily Watson		Bachelor Spinster	Dentist	27 21	Whangarei Whangarei	3 years 21 years	First Church, Whangarei	96/4284		4 December 1896	Rev. L. L. Jubits
162	8 December 1896	Thomas Ernest Jones Janet McKinnon	Thomas Ernest Jones Janet McKinnon 💍 1896/2539	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 30	Whareroa Whareroa	8 years 30 years	Residence of D. Jones, Whareroa	96/3461		8 December 1896	Rev. G. Y. Roby
163	23 December 1896	Victor Beeston Ellen Rebecca Beeston	Victor Baxton Ellen Rebecca Beans 💍 1896/3307	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	22 20	Whangarei Whangarei	3 years 20 years	Residence of Bride's Parents	96/4285	H. Beeston, Father	23 December 1896	Rev. L. L. Jubits
164	23 December 1896	Henry Simmons May Mag Ferguson	Henry Simmonds Peters May Mary Thomson Ferguson 💍 1897/4175	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	25 18	Ruatangata Ruatangata	6 months 8 years	The Hall, Maungakaramea	97/234	J. Ferguson, Father	23 December 1896	Rev. G. Y. Roby
165	23 December 1896	Robert William Gale Prudence Balloch	Robert William Gale Lye Prudence Belton 💍 1896/2540	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	22 22	Whangarei Kamo	6 years 10 years	Residence of Bride's Parents, Kamo	96/3462		23 December 1896	Rev. G. Y. Roby
166	24 December 1896	George Smith Bertha Buckthought	George Smith Bertha Burkhardt 💍 1896/2835	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 18	Helena Bay Helena Bay	9 years 10 years	Residence of Bride's Parents, Helena Bay	96/3817	F. Buckthought, Father	24 December 1896	Rev. J. S. Hawken

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).