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 615

District of Stratford 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
36	9 October 1896	Thomas Hitcheox Rosina Emmeline Porteous	Thomas Hitchcox Rosina Emmeline Porteous 💍 1896/2571	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	27 22	Opunake Opunake	3 years 3 years	The Office of the Registrar at Stratford	96/3471		9 October 1896	The Registrar, Stratford
37	9 October 1896	Edgar Harold Ousey Ellen Elizabeth Porteous	Edgar Harold Ousey Ellen Elizabeth Porteous 💍 1896/2572	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	21 24	Opunake Opunake	3 years 3 years	The Office of the Registrar at Stratford	96/3472		9 October 1896	The Registrar, Stratford
38	10 November 1896	William Wallace Elizabeth Kenny Hermidy	William Wallace Elizabeth Kennedy 💍 1896/3565 William Wallace Elizabeth Emma Purvis 💍 1896/3570	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 22	Eltham Eltham	4 years 5 days	The Residence of Mr. Richard Dean, Mountain Road, Eltham	96/4645		10 November 1896	Rev. J. N. Hayward
39	21 November 1896	Robert Lambert Stenlake Annie Jessie Wilson	Robert Lambert Stenlake Annie Jessie Wilson 💍 1896/2821	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Dressmaker	33 30	Eltham Okaiawa	4 years 12 years	Union Church, Manaia	96/3829		20 November 1896	Rev. C. H. Lacos, Hawera
40	30 November 1896	Cornelius Hodg Kinson Clara Alice Elois Algie	Cornelius Hodgkinson Clara Alice Elois Algie 💍 1896/2554	Bachelor Widow	Farmer Farmer	27 37	Toko Toko	1 year 6 years	The Residence of A. R. Algie, Standish Road, Toko	96/3476		30 November 1896	Rev. G. Clement
41	21 December 1896	Christen Rasmussen Marian Mabel Hewer	Christen Rasmussen Marian Mabel Hewer 💍 1896/2552	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner Domestic Duties	32 31	Stratford Stratford	3 years 5 years	Anglican Church, Stratford	96/3474		21 December 1896	Rev. N. Boyes
42	21 December 1896	Charles William Phillips Mary Collingwood	Charles William Phillips Mary Collingwood 💍 1896/4883	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Duties	36 21	Cardiff Cardiff	3 months 3 years	Methodist Church, Cardiff	96/3477		21 December 1896	Rev. G. Clement
43	24 December 1896	Horace Walter James Isabella Moody	Horace Walter James Isabella Moody 💍 1896/2553	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Duties	28 18	Pohokura Pohokura	4 years 3 years	The Residence of Thomas Moody, Pohokura	96/3475	Thomas Moody, Father	24 December 1896	Rev. N. Boyes

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).