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 263

District of Nelson 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	1 January 1897	Ellsworth Lincoln Probasco Alice Emiline Jones	Ellsworthy Lincoln Probasco Alice Emeline Jones 💍 1897/4607	Divorced (absolute 12 September 1889) Spinster	Circus Proprietor Circus Performer	33 19	Halifax Street Nelson Halifax Street Nelson	3 Days 5 Days	St Johns Wesleyan Church Hardy Street Nelson	97/631	Walter Jones father	1 January 1897	Rev S. F. Prior Wesleyan Minister
2	11 January 1897	William John O'Connor Clara Fieldes	William John O'Connor Clara Fieldes 💍 1897/4622	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	31 23	Waimea West Waimea West Nelson	3 years 3 years	Catholic Station Waimea Street Nelson	97/627		11 January 1897	Rev W. G. Mahonay Roman Catholic Priest
3	12 January 1897	Walter Hobbs Louisa Maud Martin	Walter Hobbs Louisa Mary Martin 💍 1897/4606	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman Domestic Servant	29 23	Gloucester Street Nelson Halifax Street Nelson	4 years 11 years	Residence of Henry James Wells Waimea Road Nelson	97/630		12 January 1897	Rev F. W. Challerton Church of England Minister
4	15 January 1897	James Cullen Williams Minnie Hornell	James Cullen Williams Minnie Hounsell 💍 1897/4608	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	28 22	Russell Street Nelson Tasman Street Nelson	2 months 2 years	St Johns Wesleyan Church Hardy Street Nelson	97/632		15 January 1897	Rev S. F. Prior Wesleyan Minister
5	9 February 1897	William John Bradfield Catherine Eliza Guest	William John Bray Catherine Eliza Guest 💍 1897/4621	Bachelor Spinster	Gardening Domestic Servant	25 22	Waimea Road Nelson Waimea Road Nelson	12 months 14 days	Residence of Martha Taylor Waimea Road Nelson	97/626		9 February 1897	Rev F. W. Challerton Church of England Minister
6	12 February 1897	William Wanstall Winifred Russ Nee Hodgens	William Wanstall Winifred Russ 💍 1897/4623	Widower Widow	Painter Farmer	40 29	Queen Street Richmond Coach & Horse Bridge Street Nelson	6 years 29 years	Catholic Station Waimea Street Nelson	97/628		12 February 1897	Rev W. G. Mahonay Roman Catholic Priest
7	15 February 1897	Patrick McGrath Ellen Hennessy	Patrick McGrath Ellen Hennessey 💍 1897/4605	Bachelor Spinster	Constable Waitress	39 25	Hardy Street Nelson Trafalgar Street Nelson	3 years 2 years	St Mary's Church Waimea Street Nelson	97/629		15 February 1897	Rev W. G. Mahonay Roman Catholic Priest
8	15 February 1897	Alfred John Sloss Rebecca May Reeves	Alfred John Sloss Rebecca May Reeves 💍 1897/4609	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	20 19	Washington Road Nelson Washington Road Nelson	11 months 14 years 9 months	Residence of Thomas Reeves Washington Road Nelson	97/633	John Sloss father, Thomas Reeves father	15 February 1897	Rev S. F. Prior Wesleyan Minister

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).