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 225

District of Wellington 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
1	4 January 1897	Mowbray G. Fisher Emily Phillips	Mowbray Grenfell Fisher Emily Phillips 💍 1897/3854	Bachelor Spinster	Musician	29 27	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Plimmer	97/550	4 January 1897	Rev. Josiah Ward
2	4 January 1897	Arthur Wakeford Nicol Elizabeth Stroupe	Arthur Wakeford Nicol Elizabeth Stoupe 💍 1897/4304	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	25 21	Wellington Wellington		House of Mr. Nicol, Bolton Terrace	97/478		Rev. C. Dallaston
3	4 January 1897	James Henry Deal Jane Anne Foster	James Henry Doyle Jane Annie Pooley 💍 1897/3865	Bachelor Spinster		26 22	Wellington Wellington		St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street	97/538		Rev. John Ainsworth
4	4 January 1897	Samuel Galden Lillian Draper	Samuel Yalden Lillian Draper 💍 1897/3926	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	23 20	Wellington Wellington		House of Mr. Draper, Taranaki Street	97/529		Rev. James Guy
5	4 January 1897	Arthur Edward Morgan Mary Elizabeth Hobbs	Arthur Edward Morgan Mary Elizabeth Hobbs 💍 1897/4305	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 22	Lower Hutt Lower Hutt		House of Mr. Hobbs, Lower Hutt	97/519		Rev. Joseph H. Gray
6	4 January 1897	William Edmonds Catherine Patton	William Edmonds Catherine Patton 💍 1897/916	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 25	Wellington Wellington	5 days	Registrar Office, Wellington	97/482		W. T. Wyatt
7	4 January 1897	Alexander Laurenson Emma Jane Barlow	Alexander Laurenson Emma Jane Barlow 💍 1897/3849	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	28 21	Wellington Wellington	years	House of Mr. Barlow, Oxford Terrace	97/546		Mr. Frank Hales
8	4 January 1897	Charles Edward Forcat Scardin Elizabeth Wootton	Charles Edward Foucart Scanlan Elizabeth Wootton 💍 1897/3599	Bachelor Spinster	Medical Practitioner	35 31	Petone Petone	3 years	Roman Catholic Church, Lower Hutt	97/580		Rev. A. Thomson
9	5 January 1897	Henry Webster Edith Gigger	Henry Webster Edith Gigger 💍 1897/1859	Bachelor Spinster	Shearer	28 22	Petone Petone	1 year	Presbyterian Church, Petone	97/483	5 January 1897	Rev. A. Thomson
10	5 January 1897	Robert Wilson Eliza Jane Page	Robert Wilson Eliza Jane Page 💍 1897/923	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	32 35	Wellington Wellington	5 days	Registrar Office, Wellington	97/483	5 January 1897	W. T. Wyatt
11	6 January 1897	Samuel Penney Margaret Borlase	Samuel Penney Margaret Borlase 💍 1897/924	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	56 36	Wellington Wellington	1 month	Registrar Office, Wellington	97/484	6 January 1897	W. T. Wyatt
12	7 January 1897	Sidney George Habers Hall Elsie Grace McGifford Clealand	Sidney George Herbert Hall Elsie Grace McGiffart Cleland 💍 1897/4263	Bachelor Spinster	Dentist	26 23	Wellington Wellington	years	House of Mr. Clealand, Tinakori Road	97/564	7 January 1897	Rev. John Read Glasson
13	8 January 1897	Joseph Frank Dyer Phoebe Alice Seddon	Joseph Frank Dyer Phoebe Alicia Seddon 💍 1897/3921	Bachelor Spinster	Mercantile Salesman	36 26	Wellington Wellington		St. Paul's Cathedral	97/507	8 January 1897	Bishop Wallis
14	11 January 1897	James Alexander Frost Beatrice Elizabeth Eltham	James Alexander Frost Beatrice Elizabeth Eltham 💍 1897/3911	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	37 30	Wellington Wellington	5 weeks 2 weeks	St. Peter's Church	97/575	11 January 1897	Rev. H. C. Waters
15	11 January 1897	Charles James Tully Kate Johnson	Charles James Tully Kate Johnson 💍 1897/3928 Charles James Henry Harris Helen Johnson 💍 1897/2660	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	40 32	Wellington Wellington	3 days 1 year	St. Paul's Cathedral	97/508	11 January 1897	Rev. H. E. Tuckey

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).