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 315

District of Geraldine 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
486	9 January 1897	Edward Michael Johnson Ellen Elizabeth O'Halloran	Edward Michael Johnson Ellen Elizabeth O'Halloran 💍 1897/3412	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Duties	23 23	Orari Pleasant Valley	14 years 6 years	Roman Catholic Church, Geraldine	97/807		9 January 1897	Rev. H. G. Bowers (Roman Catholic)
487	15 January 1897	Charles Edwin Roy Susan Alice Wood	Charles Edwin Ray Susan Alice Wood 💍 1897/3902	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler Domestic Duties	28 18	Orari Gorge Woodbury	6 years 18 years	The House of Mr. William Hanson, Woodbury	97/808	William Hanson, Guardian	15 January 1897	Rev. James Preston (Church of England)
488	25 January 1897	Matthew Daley Honora Cronin	Matthew Daley Honora Cronin 💍 1897/4392	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	38 27	Orari Rangitata	6 years 8 months	Roman Catholic Church, Geraldine	97/809		25 January 1897	Rev. H. G. Bowers (Roman Catholic)
489	30 January 1897	Charles Alexander Crowe Violet Isabel Temple	Charles Alexander Crowe Violet Isabel Temple 💍 1897/4403	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 19	Pleasant Valley Pleasant Valley	5 years 16 years	St. Mary's Church, Geraldine	97/810	Edwyn Frederick Temple, Father	30 January 1897	Rev. James Preston (Church of England)
490	2 February 1897	Arthur Leslie Temple Ida Blennerhassett Tincler	Arthur Teopic Temple Ida Blennerhassett Tincler 💍 1897/4410	Bachelor Spinster	Commission Agent Governess	28 23	Castlewood Rotorua, Woodbury	4 years 2 years	St. Mary's Church, Geraldine	97/811		2 February 1897	Rev. James Preston (Church of England)
491	24 February 1897	Arthur James Cooling Sarah Kate Jenkins	Arthur James Cooling Sarah Kate Jenkins 💍 1897/4411	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	24 22	Peel Forest Peel Forest	5 years 20 years	St. Stephen's Church, Peel Forest	97/812		24 February 1897	Rev. James Preston (Church of England)

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).