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 707

District of Whanganui 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
95	28 November 1896	James Sullivan Norah Kane	James Sullivan Norah Kane 💍 1896/3618	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	30 22	Whanganui Whanganui	3 days 3 days	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Whanganui	96/4721	28 November 1896	C. H. Kirk, Roman Catholic
96	30 November 1896	Ernest Hepaul James Margaret Ellen Piper	Ernest Nepaul James Margaret Ellen Piper 💍 1896/2655	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 21	Whanganui Whanganui	16 years 15 years	St. John's Church of England, Whanganui	96/3567	30 November 1896	J. B. Maclean, Church of England
97	30 November 1896	William Stewart Helen McPhee	William Stewart Helen McPherson 💍 1896/4783 William Stewart Jane Withell 💍 1896/2945	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Labourer	33 23	Whanganui Whanganui	1 week 1 week	Mr. Alexander Cormack's residence, Ure Avenue, Whanganui	96/3577	30 November 1896	Charles McDonald, Presbyterian
98	02 December 1896	John McMenamin Jeanie Sinclair	John McMenamen Jeanie Sinclair 💍 1896/2668	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	40 36	Whanganui Whanganui	3 days 3 days	In the office of the Registrar, Whanganui	96/3559	02 December 1896	The Registrar
99	04 December 1896	William John James Bertha Jane Bannan	William John James Bertha Jane Rannan 💍 1896/2662	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer	28 21	Whanganui Whanganui	2 years 3 years	In the residence of Mr. John Jones No. 3, Whanganui	96/3595	04 December 1896	G. Bond, Wesleyan
100	04 December 1896	Archibald McCallum Harriet Hannah Ruscoe	Archibald McCallum Harriet Hannah Ruscoe 💍 1896/4781	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	32 32	Whanganui District Whanganui District	8 years 32 years	In the residence of Mr. P. N. Ruscoe, Fordell	96/3553	04 December 1896	J. Ross, Presbyterian
101	08 December 1896	William Balcher Maud Jennings	William Hatcher Maud Jennings 💍 1896/2669	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 25	Whanganui Whanganui	24 years 12 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Whanganui	96/3560	08 December 1896	The Registrar

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).