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 601

District of Hawera 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
230	7 October 1896	George Harper Rose Hannah Waller	George Harper Rose Hannah Woller 💍 1896/3294	Bachelor Spinster	Settler Domestic Duties	24 22	Normanby Normanby	4 years 16 years	Registrars office, Hawera	96/4295		7 October 1896	J. F. Marteen
231	20 October 1896	John Edward Wilson Hephzibah Florence Griffith	John Edward Wilson Hephzibah Florence Griffith 💍 1896/3280	Widower Spinster	Upholsterer Dressmaker	36 34	Hawera Hawera	14 years 1 year	at the residence of the Groom, Caledonia Street, Hawera	96/4306		20 October 1896	C. H. Laws
232	24 October 1896	Harry Buchanan Edith Esther Goodland	Harry Buchanan Edith Esther Goodland 💍 1896/3303	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 21	Normanby Normanby	3 days 8 months	Anglican Church, Te Roti	96/4303		24 October 1896	R. J. Thorpe
233	26 October 1896	Henry Dupsy Taylor Amy Georgina Bowater	Henry Dufry Taylor Amy Georgina Bowater 💍 1896/3300	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Waitress	25 24	Hawera Hawera	3 days 3 years	Church of England, Hawera	96/4300		26 October 1896	R. J. Thorpe
235	14 November 1896	William Patrick Walshe Mary Evans	William Patrick Walshe Mary Evans 💍 1896/3273 William Edwin Cook Martha Evans 💍 1896/195	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Engineer Dressmaker	22 23	Hawera Hawera	2 years 22 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Hawera	96/4305		14 November 1896	A. D. Mulochill
236	3 December 1896	John More Grant Annie Jane Spence	John More Grant Annie Jane Spence 💍 1896/3262	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Dressmaker	31 17	Auckland Hawera	5 months 14 years	at the residence of the Brides father, David Spence, Wilson Street, Hawera	96/4304	David Spence, Father	3 December 1896	Thomas McDonald
237	7 December 1896	John Aitken Elizabeth Thomas	John Aitken Elizabeth Thomas 💍 1896/2822	Bachelor Spinster	Dairy Factory Manager Dressmaker	45 47	Normanby Manaia	2 1/2 years 4 years	Church of England, Hawera	96/3830		7 December 1896	R. J. Thorpe
238	10 December 1896	Robert Hicks Agnes Octavia Bone Muir	Robert Hicks Agnes Octavia Bone Muir 💍 1896/3302	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	41 20	Hawera Hawera	20 years 20 years	at the residence of the Brides father, A. Muir, Hawera	96/4302	A. Muir, Father	10 December 1896	Thomas McDonald
239	17 December 1896	William John Summers Rose Helen Lowers	William John Summers Rose Helen Towers 💍 1896/3281	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Domestic Servant	25 20	Normanby Normanby	4 days 4 months	at the residence of the Brides father, William Lowers, Normanby	96/4307	William Lowers, Father	17 December 1896	C. H. Laws

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).