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 241

District of Wairau 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	5 January 1897	John Irlam Barton Sarah Jane Day	John Irlam Barton Sarah Jane Day 💍 1897/4299	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Dressmaker	29 27	Leefield, Blenheim Blenheim	5 years Since birth	Residence of Rev. William Officer Robb, Blenheim	97/594		5 January 1897	The Rev. William Officer Robb
2	1 February 1897	Daniel Reardon Mary Ellen Selma Hegglun	Daniel Reardon Mary Ellen Selma Hegglun 💍 1897/3391	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 20	Blenheim Blenheim	20 years Since birth	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim	97/595	Father	1 February 1897	Alfred Carter (the Registrar)
3	10 February 1897	James Robert Bulliff Mary Ann Taylor	James Robert Bulliff Mary Ann Taylor 💍 1897/3867	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 18	Blenheim Blenheim	11 years 2 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Blenheim	97/596	Annie Maria Newhaus, formerly Taylor, Mother	10 February 1897	Alfred Carter (the Registrar)
4	24 February 1897	Charles Andrew Ogilvie Gertrude Marion Carroll	Charles Andrew Ogilvie Gertrude Marian Carroll 💍 1897/917	Widower Spinster	School Teacher	44 23	Blenheim Wellington	16 years Since birth	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wellington	97/500		24 February 1897	William Thomas Wyatt, Registrar of Marriages, Wellington
5	2 March 1897	Frank Thomas Castle Martha Wrigley	Frank Thomas Castle Martha Wrigley 💍 1897/3878	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	28 27	Blenheim Blenheim	3 days Since birth	Wesleyan Church, Blenheim	97/597		2 March 1897	Frank Thomas Samuel Grass
6	10 March 1897	Bigsby Thomas Francis Eliza Selina Schwass	Bigaby Thomas Francis Eliza Selina Schwass 💍 1897/3882	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	24 20	Awakere Awakere	Since birth 2 months	Church of the Epiphany, Awakere	97/598	Father	10 March 1897	Thomas Samuel Grass (The Ven. Archdeacon)
7	22 March 1897	Thomas Bateman Powick Annie Abagail Maxted Cribb	Thomas Bateman Powick Annie Abigail Maxted Cribb 💍 1897/3883	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	25 18	Blenheim Blenheim	10 days 14 years	Church of the Nativity, Blenheim	97/599	Mary Sowman, formerly Cribb, Mother	22 March 1897	Thomas Samuel Grace (The Ven. Archdeacon)

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).