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 209

District of Whanganui 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
68	3 July 1896	Charles Blake Elizabeth Hill	Charles Blake Elizabeth Elliot Hill 💍 1896/2056	Bachelor Spinster	Actor	26 23	Whanganui Whanganui	2 years 6 months 14 years 9 months	In the residence of the Rev. G. Bond	96/2827		3 July 1896	G. Bond, Wesleyan
69	8 August 1896	Walker George Print Violet Penman		Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	29 24	Whanganui Whanganui	5 years 4 months 15 years 9 months	In the residence of Mr. P. Swan, Bates St.	96/2831		8 August 1896	J. Treadwell, Presbyterian
70	8 August 1896	John James Birchall Elizabeth Mary Pedley	John James Birchall Elizabeth Mary Pedley 💍 1896/2057	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	24 19	Whanganui Mastown	24 years 9 months 19 years 9 months	In the residence of Mr. Thomas Pedley	96/2828	Thomas Pedley, father of bride	8 August 1896	G. Bond, Wesleyan
71	14 August 1896	John Allan Jane S. Gonagle	John Allan Jane McGonagle 💍 1896/2058	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	24 19	Whanganui Whanganui	24 years 9 months 19 years 9 months	In the residence of Mr. W. S. Gonagle, Dublin	96/2829	W. S. Gonagle, father of bride	14 August 1896	G. Bond, Wesleyan
72	18 August 1896	Thomas Edward Badley Dinah Roberts	Thomas Edward Dudley Dinah Roberts 💍 1896/2074	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	21 20	Whanganui Whanganui	9 years 9 months 2 years	St. John's English Church, Whanganui	96/2821	Martha Badley, mother of groom	18 August 1896	J. B. Maclean, Church of England
73	19 August 1896	William Morrison Ada Louisa Handley	William Morrison Ada Louisa Haudley 💍 1896/2077	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 25	Maxwelltown Otehake	23 years 9 months 25 years	In the Residence of Mr. John Handley	96/2824		19 August 1896	G. Bond, Wesleyan
74	25 August 1896	Samuel Stone Robina Mason	Samuel Stone Addenbrooke Robina Mason 💍 1896/2054	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	38 27	Rangamahia Rangawahia	15 years 8 years	In the residence of Mr. Archibald Mason	96/2819		25 August 1896	R. Hermon, Church of England

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).