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 043

District of Drury 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1	10 January 1897	George Stephens Sarah Ellen Mullins	George Stephens Sarah Ellen Mullins 💍 1897/4131	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 26	Maraetai Ardmore		Ardmore Church	97/214		10 January 1897	Rev. O. R. Hewlett, Church of England
2	4 January 1897	Andrew Clark Shaw Christina Graham	Andrew Clark Shaw Christina Taylor Graham 💍 1897/4151	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 23	Clevedon Clevedon	22 years 17 years	House of Graham, Clevedon	97/210		4 January 1897	Rev. Thos. Home, Presbyterian Minister
3	3 February 1897	Thomas George Grigg Esther Adamson	Thomas George Grigg Esther Adamson 💍 1897/4129	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	27 29	Auckland Tuakau	21 years 18 years	House of John Adamson, Tuakau	97/212		3 February 1897	Rev. W. F. Findley, Presbyterian Minister
4	12 February 1897	George Thomas Ross Sarah Jane Wilson	George Thomas Norrie Ross Sarah Jane Wilson 💍 1897/4130	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 26	Awarimu Bombay	17 years 19 years	House of John Wilson, Bombay	97/213		12 February 1897	Rev. W. F. Findley, Presbyterian Minister
5	15 February 1897	John Crosthrey Jane Carey	John Croskery Jane Carey 💍 1897/4148	Bachelor Widow	Miner	21 37	Papakura Papakura	15 years 3 years	Registrar Office, Drury	97/207		15 February 1897	Sam. Walker, Registrar
6	22 February 1897	Archibald McDonald Emily Caroline Loisby	Archibald McDonald Emily Caroline Wisby 💍 1897/4150	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 25	Hunua Hunua	22 years 1 year	House of John McDonald, Hunua	97/209		22 February 1897	Rev. Thos. Home, Presbyterian Minister
7	19 March 1897	Thomas Francis Sullivan Fanny Lea	Thomas Francis O'Sullivan Fanny Lea Stevens 💍 1897/4149	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	36 21	Papakura Papakura	3 days 3 days	Registrar Office, Drury	97/208		19 March 1897	Sam. Walker, Registrar
8	22 March 1897	James Robert Wilson Annie Maura Sutherland	James Robert Wilson Annie Maria Sutherland 💍 1897/4152	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 24	Paparata Clevedon	6 years 18 years	House of Hugh Sutherland, Clevedon	97/211		22 March 1897	Rev. Thos. Home, Presbyterian Minister
9	29 March 1897	John Davidson Edith Evans	John Davidson Edith Evans 💍 1897/1626	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	27 20	Bombay Bombay	3 days 17 years	House of William Evans, Bombay	97/272	William Evans, Father	29 March 1897	Rev. F. B. Dobson, Church of England

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 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).