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 339

District of Ruiawa Quarter ending 30 September 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
59	14 August 1896	James Ruddle Patience Amy Cullimore	James Ruddle Patience Amy Cullimore 💍 1896/2212	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 19	Ruiawa Ruiawa	12 years 17 years	Residence of Mr. William John Ruddle, Ruiawa	96/3150	Joseph Cullimore, Father	14 August 1896	Rev. Joseph Sharp, Primitive Methodist Minister
60	11 August 1896	George Olive Shields Arabella Thompson	George Olive Shields Arabella Thompson 💍 1896/2255	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker	25 25	Ruiawa Ruiawa	25 years 5 years	Residence of Mrs. Rebecca Webster, Ruiawa	96/3160		11 August 1896	Rev. Charles E. Beecroft, Wesleyan Minister
61	29 August 1896	Marcus Chriscall Ellen Barrett	Thomas Driscoll Ellen Barrett 💍 1896/2262	Bachelor Spinster	Hawker	23 21	Pleasant Point Pleasant Point	23 years 3 months	Roman Catholic Church, Pleasant Point	96/3168		29 August 1896	Very Rev. Theophilus des Chesnais, Roman Catholic Priest
62	2 September 1896	William James Cartwright Edith May Packman	William James Cartwright Edith May Packman 💍 1896/2213	Bachelor Spinster	Hammer	28 19	Hairview Ruiawa	8 months 19 years	Residence of Mr. Albert Cleland Packman, Ruiawa	96/3151	Albert Cleland Packman, Father	2 September 1896	Rev. Joseph Sharp, Primitive Methodist Minister
63	8 September 1896	Thomas Wilson Elizabeth Bishop	Thomas Wilson Elizabeth Bishop 💍 1896/2249	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	34 22	Ruiawa Ruiawa	2 years 22 years	Registrar's Office, Ruiawa	96/3155		8 September 1896	Thomas Hawley, Registrar of Marriages, Ruiawa
64	9 September 1896	Henry Sunshall Margaret Reid	Henry Smashall Margaret Reid 💍 1896/2214	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager	39 27	Ruiawa Ruiawa	3 days 27 years	Residence of Mr. John Reid, Ruiawa	96/3152		9 September 1896	Rev. Joseph Sharp, Primitive Methodist Minister
65	23 September 1896	John Walker Mary Jane Hately	John Walker Mary Jane Hately 💍 2001/15476	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	22 19	Ruiawa Ruiawa	16 months 4 years	Residence of Mrs. Mary Ann Kerr, Ruiawa	96/3153	Mary Ann Kerr, Mother. Father dead.	23 September 1896	Rev. Joseph Sharp, Primitive Methodist Minister
66	24 September 1896	Walter Henry Smith Annie Clarke	Walter Henry Smith Annie Clarke 💍 1896/2216	Bachelor Spinster	Casing Maker	28 22	Ruiawa Ruiawa	10 days 22 years	Residence of Mr. William Clarke, Ruiawa	96/3154		24 September 1896	Rev. Charles E. 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).