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 839

District of Timaru 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
67	17 October 1896	Daniel Foley Deborah Brosnahan	Daniel Foley Debrah Brosnahan 💍 1896/3176	Widower Spinster	Farmer	31 26	Levels Plains Levels Plains	4 years 26 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Timaru	96/4069	17 October 1896	Revd. John Jabman, Roman Catholic Priest
68	24 October 1896	Edward King Ellen Stevenson	Edward King Ellen Stevenson 💍 1896/2935	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 30	Washdyke Claremont	10 years 5 years	Wesleyan Church, Timaru	96/4001	24 October 1896	Rev. Charles C. Beecroft, Wesleyan Minister
69	4 November 1896	William Earl Home Florence Magdalene Rayner	William Carl Howe Florence Magdalena Rayner 💍 1896/4583	Bachelor Spinster	Station Hand Domestic Servant	27 24	Timaru Timaru	14 days 4 years	Presbyterian Church, Pleasant Point	96/3997	4 November 1896	Revd. Joseph White, Presbyterian Minister
70	7 November 1896	Henry Hamilton Loughnan Mary Ethel Burnes	Henry Hamilton Loughnan Mary Ethel Burnes 💍 1896/3177	Widower Spinster	Solicitor	47 28	Christchurch Timaru	28 years 15 days	Roman Catholic Church, Timaru	96/4070	7 November 1896	Rev. William Joseph Lewis, Roman Catholic Priest
71	9 November 1896	Thomas Adam Long Mary Wilson	Thomas Adam Lang Mary Wilson 💍 1896/3175	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Laborer Domestic Servant	29 24	St. Andrews St. Andrews	4 days 3 weeks	At dwelling house of Alexander Hastie, Springbrook, St. Andrews	96/4068	9 November 1896	Rev. William Findlayson, Presbyterian Minister
72	10 November 1896	William Mack Mary Ann Aitken	William Walsh Mary Ann Small 💍 1896/4633 William Black Mary Agnes Moore Black 💍 1896/3125 William Aim Mary Ann Smail Rankin 💍 1896/455 William Gill Mary Ann Edwards 💍 1896/3071	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman Domestic Servant	38 27	Fairlie Timaru	18 months 6 months	Residence of M. Aitken, Timaru	96/4002	10 November 1896	Rev. William Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
73	12 November 1896	Andrew Stoth Rose Ellen Cook	Andrew Stott Rose Ellen Cook 💍 1896/3178	Bachelor Spinster	Mill Hand Waitress	22 21	Timaru Timaru	4 years 4 years	Roman Catholic Church, Timaru	96/4071	12 November 1896	Rev. William Joseph Lewis, Roman Catholic Priest
74	21 December 1896	Herbert Ingram Shrimpton Emma Annie Foster	Herbert Ingram Shrimpton Emma Annie Foster 💍 1896/3021	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Tailoress	27 28	Timaru Timaru	27 years 28 years	Wesleyan Church, Timaru	96/4000	21 December 1896	Rev. Charles C. Beecroft, Wesleyan Minister

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).