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 802

District of Christchurch 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
500	15 December 1896	Thomas Breastly Lord Alice Jane Evans	Thomas Preastly Lord Alice Jane Evans 💍 1896/2983	Bachelor Spinster	Minterer	24 25	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 25 years	St. Mark's Church, Opawa	96/3960		15 December 1896	Ven. Archdeacon Cholmondeley, Church of England
501	15 December 1896	William Henry Hadlee Jane Lintott	William Henry Hadler Jane Lintott 💍 1896/4578	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 24	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 25 years	House of Mr. George Leggett, Burnham	96/3912		15 December 1896	Rev. A. R. D. Goswell, Church of England
502	17 December 1896	Harry Ernest Sharp Matilda Charlotte Ross	Harry Ernest Shave Matilda Charlotte Evans 💍 1896/3449	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	30 26	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 26 years	Holy Trinity Church, Avonside	96/4502		17 December 1896	Rev. A. Pascoe, Church of England
503	17 December 1896	John Richard Belcher Louisa Persis Theobald	John Richard Belcher Louise Persis Theobald 💍 1896/2855	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 30	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 13 years	St. Michael's Church, Christchurch	96/3875		17 December 1896	Rev. H. Averill, Church of England
504	18 December 1896	Charles Edward Selter Florence Maud Stakin	Charles Edward Salter Florence Maud Deakin 💍 1896/2977 Charles Alfred Burmeister Florence May Otten 💍 1897/4441 Charles Edward Dines Halstead Florence Mabel Ricketts 💍 1896/2903	Widower Spinster	Solicitor	46 34	Christchurch Christchurch	34 years 12 years	Residence of Mr. Holly Road, Lyttelton	96/3954		18 December 1896	Rev. W. Hurley, Wesleyan
505	19 December 1896	Josiah Cooke Sarah Jane Hodgson	Josiah Cooke Sarah Jane Hodgen 💍 1897/1481	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 23	Christchurch Christchurch	19 years 13 years	Presbyterian Church, Papanui	97/2522		19 December 1896	Rev. A. R. D. Bright, Presbyterian
506	21 December 1896	Daniel Mahoney Margaret Ronan	Daniel Mahoney Margaret Ronan 💍 1896/2885	Bachelor Spinster	Striker	20 23	Christchurch Christchurch	16 years 20 years	Roman Catholic Church, Barbadoes Street, Christchurch	96/3890	Daniel Mahoney, father of groom	21 December 1896	Rev. Father Cummings, Roman Catholic

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).