Intentions to Marry, 1897 January-June

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840411, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, June 25 2025

1897 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 019

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 1897

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
87	19 February 1897	John William Ross Annie Elizabeth Robinson	John Williams Ross Annie Elizabeth Robinson 💍 1897/3381	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	30 23	Auckland Auckland	25 years 23 years	House of W.R.B. Robinson	97/121	19 February 1897	Rev. R. F. Macniel, Presbyterian
88	20 February 1897	Robert Henry Salmon Zoe Hastie	Robert Henry Montgomery Salmon Zoe Hastie 💍 1897/3765	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	21 23	Auckland Alexandra	2 years 23 years	Primitive Methodist Church, Ponsonby	97/109	20 February 1897	Rev. B. Ward, Primitive Methodist
89	22 February 1897	George James Farquhar Emily Moore	George James Bright Farquhar Emily Moore 💍 1897/4108	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	29 26	Auckland Auckland	25 years 10 years	Roman Catholic Church, Panmure	97/191	22 February 1897	Very Rev. W. McDonald, Roman Catholic
90	22 February 1897	Patrick McKeever Annie Elizabeth Short	Patrick McKeever Annie Elizabeth Short 💍 1897/4058	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	32 26	Karangahake Sydney	7 years 26 years	St. Patrick's Cathedral	97/87	22 February 1897	Rev. F. Buckley, Roman Catholic
91	22 February 1897	Arthur George Pilkington Cecilia Edith Eunice Matthews	Arthur George Pickington Cecelia Edith Eunice Matthews 💍 1897/3777	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	27 24	Auckland Auckland	3 years 6 years	Presbyterian Church	97/45	22 February 1897	Rev. D. J. Steele, Presbyterian
92	23 February 1897	Albert Wharton Govatt Emily Kate Govatt	Albert Wharton Emily Kate Lovatt 💍 1897/4081	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	26 28	Auckland Auckland	17 years 28 years	House of M.R. Govatt, Ponsonby	97/137	23 February 1897	Rev. G. A. Mann, Primitive Methodist
93	24 February 1897	William Marshall Halley Jane Williams	William Marshall Halley Jane Williams 💍 1897/4021 Thomas Hullett Jane Williams 💍 1897/1202 Richard James Jane Williams 💍 1898/661	Bachelor Spinster	Cab driver	35 30	Auckland Auckland	3 months 10 months	Registrar's Office	97/23	24 February 1897	E. A. Hyons, Registrar

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).