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 455

District of Tapanui 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
206	20 January 1897	Walter Scott Eliza McMillan	Walter Scott Eliza McMillan 💍 1897/938	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	23 20	Tapanui Tapanui	5 days 2 months	Registrar's Office	97/1028	Donald McMillan, Father	20 January 1897	Charles Whelan, Registrar
207	21 January 1897	John Adam Dunn McKenzie Elizabeth McDonald	John Adam Dunn McKenzie Elizabeth McDonald 💍 1897/4581	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	29 24	Tapanui Tapanui	19 years 20 years	Mr. McDonald's house, Crookston	97/1094		21 January 1897	Rev. W. A. Kyd
208	6 February 1897	William Cappell Mary Haugh	William Caffell Mary Haugh 💍 1897/4583	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 32	Tapanui Tapanui	20 years 12 years	Mr. Haugh's house, Dunrobin	97/1095		6 February 1897	Rev. W. A. Kyd
209	22 February 1897	Thomas Moir Margaret Jane Clouston	Thomas Moir Margaret Jane Clauston 💍 1897/4584	Widower Spinster	Blacksmith	29 28	Kelso Kelso	3 1/2 years 16 years	Presbyterian Church, Kelso	97/1096		22 February 1897	Rev. W. A. Kyd
210	8 March 1897	Alexander Henry Whitock Keir Mary Jane McInerney	Alexander Money Whitock Keir Mary Jane McInerney 💍 1897/939	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	31 29	Tapanui Tapanui	31 years 2 months	Presbyterian Manse, Tapanui	97/1029		8 March 1897	Rev. A. Begg
211	25 March 1897	Thomas Hagen Jessie McQueen	Thomas Hagen Jessie McQueen 💍 1897/940	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 15	Tapanui Tapanui	25 years 15 years	Mr. McQueen's house, Tapanui	97/1030	Angus McQueen, Father	25 March 1897	Rev. A. Begg
212	27 March 1897	Joseph Brooks Ada Ann Whiteside	Joseph Brooks Ada Ann Whiteside 💍 1897/942	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 25	Tapanui Tapanui	11 years 5 years	Salvation Hall, Tapanui	97/1031		27 March 1897	Major J. Birkenshaw

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).