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 291

District of Christchurch 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	4 January 1897	William Burton Elizabeth Sarah Matthews	William Barton Bennington Elizabeth Sarah Matthews 💍 1897/3408	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	26 28	Christchurch Lincoln	26 years 18 months	Episcopalian Church	97/799		4 January 1897	Rev. H. Northcote, Church of England
2	4 January 1897	John Booth Beckett Bessie Withnell	John Booth Beckett Bessie Withnall 💍 1897/3949	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	24 24	Christchurch Fendalton	3 days 4 years	Episcopalian Church	97/717		4 January 1897	Rev. Canon Hack, Church of England
3	5 January 1897	William Thomas Pickett Mary Ann Weston	William Thomas Pickett Mary Ann Weston 💍 1897/3894	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Tailoress	22 26	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 20 years	House of Mrs. Weston, Gladstone Terrace	97/798		5 January 1897	Rev. E. Penney, Methodist
4	5 January 1897	James Hight Maggie Green	James Hight Maggie Green 💍 1897/3903 James Scott Alice Green 💍 1897/2218	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher Domestic	26 24	Christchurch Manchester Street, Christchurch	26 years 24 years	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church	97/786		5 January 1897	Rev. J. Cummings, Roman Catholic
5	6 January 1897	Emerson Bowes Emily Louisa Clarke	Emerson Bowes Emily Louisa Clarke 💍 1897/4320	Bachelor Spinster	Dealer Dressmaker	37 22	Christchurch St. Albans	17 years 22 years	St. Matthews Church	97/874		6 January 1897	Rev. H. Williams, Church of England
6	7 January 1897	James McNeill Elizabeth Inkster	James McNair Elizabeth Inkster 💍 1897/1113	Widower Spinster	Miner Domestic	51 45	Christchurch George Street, Christchurch	3 days 20 years	House of Mrs. Inkster	97/1952		7 January 1897	Rev. D. Ainslee, Presbyterian
7	8 January 1897	James Schumacher Ethel Alice Etheridge	James Schumacher Ethel Alice Etheridge 💍 1897/4419	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	23 20	Christchurch Lincoln	23 years 20 years	House of Mr. James Schumacher, Cashel Street	97/769	Fanny Sophia Coleman, Mother	8 January 1897	Rev. Charles Port, Wesleyan

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).