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 488

District of Auckland 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
573	25 November 1896	William Henry Webley Beatrice Helen Haverfield	William Henry Webley Beatrice Helen Hamerfield 💍 1896/2896	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	25 25	Auckland Newton	25 years 25 years	Epiphany Church	96/3769		25 November 1896	Rev. W. E. Luch, Ch. of Eng.
574	25 November 1896	Thomas Cullinane Mary Fitzmaurice	Thomas Cullinane Mary Fitzmauriel 💍 1896/2740	Bachelor Spinster	Police Constable	27 26	Auckland Auckland	8 months 2 months	St. Patrick's Cathedral	96/3745		25 November 1896	Rev. T. Mulvihill, Roman Cath.
575	25 November 1896	Walter Henry Rutherford Bertha Lyon Jones	Walter Henry Rutherford Bertha Lyon Jones 💍 1896/3537	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	23 20	Auckland Parnell	9 years 20 months	St. Mary's Church	96/4660	Edward Jones, father	25 November 1896	Rev. T. MacMurray, Ch. of Eng.
576	26 November 1896	Herbert Atterwell Elizabeth Pool	Herbert Attewell Elizabeth Pool 💍 1896/89	Bachelor Widow	Plumber	35 42	Auckland Auckland	34 years 21 years	Registrar's Office	96/3689		26 November 1896	E. S. H. Lyons, Registrar
577	27 November 1896	Tom Jackson Emma Amelia Adams	Tom Albert Jackson Emma Amelia Adams 💍 1896/129	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 19	Auckland Lake Takapuna	12 years 19 years	House of Mr. P. Jackson	96/3800	William Adams, father	27 November 1896	Rev. R. J. Ferguson, Presbytn.
578	27 November 1896	Frederick Myer Solomons Annie Lewis	Frederick Myer Solomons Annie Lewis 💍 1896/2837	Bachelor Spinster	Tobacconist	28 26	Wellington Auckland	4 years 26 years	The Synagogue	96/3802		27 November 1896	Rev. S. A. Goldstein, Hebrew
579	27 November 1896	Max Piper Ellen Eggen	Max Pifer Ellen Eggen 💍 1896/2741	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	23 24	Auckland Auckland	5 years 24 years	St. Patrick's Cathedral	96/3746		27 November 1896	Rev. F. Buckley, Roman Cath.

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).