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 303

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
72	1 March 1897	John Robinson Eleanor Gallen	John Robinson Eleanor Gallen 💍 1897/3909	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	43 32	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	Roman Catholic Church, Barbadoes St, Christchurch	97/192	1 March 1897	Rev. T. Cummings, Roman Catholic
73	1 March 1897	Edwin Walter Woodhouse Isabella Osborne	Edwin Walter Woodhouse Isabella Osborne 💍 1897/4426	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 23	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 8 days	Wesleyan Church, Colombo St	97/190	1 March 1897	Rev. G. Parsonson, Wesleyan
74	1 March 1897	Charles James Westland Jessie Eleanor Fisher	Charles James Westland Jessie Eleanor Fisher 💍 1897/1196	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 24	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 24 years	St. Saviours Church	97/205	1 March 1897	Rev. E. P. Cachemaille, Church of England
75	1 March 1897	Joseph Patrick O'Donoghue Florence Mary Hearth	Joseph Patrick O'Donoghue Florence Mary Marsh 💍 1897/3890	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	28 26	Christchurch Christchurch	28 years 26 years	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Manchester Street	97/193	1 March 1897	Rev. M. D. Mahoney, Roman Catholic
76	1 March 1897	Charles Augustus Tomlinson Alice Cadenhead	Charles Augustus Tomlinson Alice Cadenhead 💍 1897/3935	Bachelor Spinster	Traveller	34 26	Christchurch Christchurch	14 days 14 days	Registrar's Office	97/196	1 March 1897	Registrar of Marriages, J. W. Parkerson
77	2 March 1897	William Day Ellen Beatrice Temple Watson	William Day Ellen Beatrice Temple Watson 💍 1897/3965	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 20	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 20 years	House of Mrs. A. Watson, Creek Road	97/194	2 March 1897	Rev. W. Findley, Wesleyan
78	2 March 1897	Philip Joseph Brown Catherine Agnes Bailey	Philip Joseph Brown Catharine Agnes Bailey 💍 1897/3891	Bachelor Spinster	Warden	27 25	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 3 days	Roman Catholic Church, Barbadoes St, Christchurch	97/194	2 March 1897	Rev. T. Cummings, Roman Catholic
79	2 March 1897	Thomas Humphries Frances Annie Braven	Thomas Humphries Frances Annie Braven 💍 1897/3969	Bachelor Spinster	Timber Merchant	33 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 21 years	Wesleyan Church, Springston	97/138	2 March 1897	Rev. J. A. Hosking, Wesleyan

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).