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 634

District of Napier 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
105	21 December 1896	David Thomas Bird Nellie Walker	Daniel Thomas Bird Nellie Walker 💍 1896/3330	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Housekeeper	22 22	Napier Napier	4 years 14 years	Presbyterian Church Napier	96/4332		21 December 1896	Rev. J. Paterson, Presbyterian
106	22 December 1896	Michael Francis McHugh Esther Jane Mooney	Michael Francis McHugh Esther Jane Mooney 💍 1896/177	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Dressmaker	25 19	Waihi Napier, Spit	4 months 19 years 6 months	St. Patrick's Church Napier	96/4630	Wm. Mooney, Father	22 December 1896	Rev. M. Grogan, R. C. Priest
107	28 December 1896	Henry Watson Catherine Isabella Simms	William Henry Watson Catherine Isabella Sims 💍 1896/2582	Widower Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	32 25	Napier Napier	1 month 15 years	Baptist Church Napier	96/3509		28 December 1896	Rev. W. G. Lo, Baptist
108	28 December 1896	Andrew Hunter Amy Easer	Andrew Hunter Amy Edser 💍 1896/2574	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Domestic	24 23	Wellington Napier	10 months 4 days	Residence of Bride's Father, White Road, Napier	96/3500		28 December 1896	Rev. W. H. Beech, Wesleyan
109	28 December 1896	Frank Edward Arthur Gordon Mabel Barnier Robson	Frank Edward Gordon Mabel Bernice Robson 💍 1896/3751	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Housemaid	28 18	Napier Napier	8 days 18 years	St. Augustine's Church Napier	96/4832	Father	28 December 1896	Rev. W. Welsh, Church of England
110	29 December 1896	Robert Colburn Wright Susan Pomeroy Sagor	Robert Colburn Wright Leah Bartlett Susan Pomeroy Lagor 💍 1897/528	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor Domestic	24 22	Napier Napier	5 years 22 months	Residence of H. J. Holder, Bristly Road, Napier	97/1494		29 December 1896	Rev. J. Paterson, Presbyterian
111	30 December 1896	Donald McMillan Florence Edith Evans	Donald McLellan Florence Edith Evans 💍 1896/2596	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	33 21	Spit Spit	1 year 1 year	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Napier	96/3499		30 December 1896	S. J. Page, Registrar

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).