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 927

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 December 1896 Registrar Henry Hawthorne Grant Maef

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

1880

30 November 1896

James Milne
Fanny Nicol

James Milne
Fanny Nicol
💍 1896/3713

Bachelor
Spinster

Clergyman

full
full

Oamaru
Wellington

3 months

St. Andrews Church (Presbyterian)

96/4602

30 November 1896

Rev. Charles Ogg, Presbyterian Church

No	1880
Date of Notice	30 November 1896
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Milne	Fanny Nicol
	💍 1896/3713
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clergyman
Age	full	full
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Wellington
Length of Residence	3 months
Marriage Place	St. Andrews Church (Presbyterian)
Folio	96/4602
Consent
Date of Certificate	30 November 1896
Officiating Minister	Rev. Charles Ogg, Presbyterian Church

1881

9 December 1896

Ernest Maniford
Esther Caroline Cleverley

Ernest Staniford
Esther Caroline Cleverley
💍 1896/3140

Bachelor
Spinster

Saddler

23
20

Oamaru
Oamaru

20 years at the house of Mr Thomas
20 years Addison at South Oamaru

Charles Cleverley Church

96/4204

Charles Cleverley, Father

9 December 1896

Rev. James Glover, Primitive Methodist Church

No	1881
Date of Notice	9 December 1896
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ernest Maniford	Esther Caroline Cleverley
BDM Match (94%)	Ernest Staniford	Esther Caroline Cleverley
	💍 1896/3140
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Saddler
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	20 years at the house of Mr Thomas	20 years Addison at South Oamaru
Marriage Place	Charles Cleverley Church
Folio	96/4204
Consent	Charles Cleverley, Father
Date of Certificate	9 December 1896
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Glover, Primitive Methodist Church

1882

9 December 1896

James Tutfas
Jessie Ann Meldrum Taylor

James Turpus
Jessie Ann Meldrum Taylor
💍 1896/3142

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

38
23

Weston
Oamaru

18 years at the house of Mr John Taylor
15 years Taylor situate at Chelmer Street, Oamaru

96/4206

9 December 1896

Rev. William Wright, Presbyterian Church

No	1882
Date of Notice	9 December 1896
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Tutfas	Jessie Ann Meldrum Taylor
BDM Match (88%)	James Turpus	Jessie Ann Meldrum Taylor
	💍 1896/3142
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	38	23
Dwelling Place	Weston	Oamaru
Length of Residence	18 years at the house of Mr John Taylor	15 years Taylor situate at Chelmer Street, Oamaru
Marriage Place
Folio	96/4206
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 December 1896
Officiating Minister	Rev. William Wright, Presbyterian Church

1883

12 December 1896

John Robertson
Helen Borrie

John Robertson
Helen Borrie
💍 1896/3143

Bachelor
Spinster

Teacher

26
29

Ngapara
Papakaiho

3 years at the house of Mr Donald Borrie
29 years Borrie at Papakaiho

96/4207

12 December 1896

Rev. William Wright, Presbyterian Church

No	1883
Date of Notice	12 December 1896
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Robertson	Helen Borrie
	💍 1896/3143
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Teacher
Age	26	29
Dwelling Place	Ngapara	Papakaiho
Length of Residence	3 years at the house of Mr Donald Borrie	29 years Borrie at Papakaiho
Marriage Place
Folio	96/4207
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 December 1896
Officiating Minister	Rev. William Wright, Presbyterian Church

1884

22 December 1896

Evan Evans
Marguerite Ellen Imrie

Evan Evans
Marguerite Ellen Imrie
💍 1896/3129

Bachelor
Spinster

Chemist
Machinist

31
26

Oamaru
Oamaru

3 days at the house of Mr W. G. Imrie
15 years Humber Street, Oamaru

96/4216

22 December 1896

Rev. James Milne, Presbyterian Church

No	1884
Date of Notice	22 December 1896
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Evan Evans	Marguerite Ellen Imrie
	💍 1896/3129
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Chemist	Machinist
Age	31	26
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	3 days at the house of Mr W. G. Imrie	15 years Humber Street, Oamaru
Marriage Place
Folio	96/4216
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 December 1896
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Milne, Presbyterian Church

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 1908. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).