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 601

District of Hawera Quarter ending 30 June 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
245	5 April 1897	Albert Kemp Mary Kneebone	Albert Kemp Mary Kneebone 💍 1897/461	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Housekeeper	25 21	Hawera Hawera	6 months 10 months	Wesleyan Parsonage, Hawera	97/1421		5 April 1897	C. H. Laws
246	7 April 1897	James Minhinick Annie Studholme Thompson	James Minhinnick Annie Studholme Thompson 💍 1897/442	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 18	Keteonetea Normanby	19 years 18 years	Registrar's Office, Hawera	97/1428	Robert Studholme Thompson, father	7 April 1897	J. F. Martin
247	15 April 1897	James McMaster Beatrice Alice Hall	James McMaster Beatrice Alice Hall 💍 1897/439	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	29 21	Normanby Normanby	2 1/2 years 16 years	At the residence of the bride's father, John Hall, Normanby	97/1425		15 April 1897	C. H. Laws
248	20 April 1897	Edward Hunt Celeste Belle Corbett	Edward Hunt Celeste Belle Corbett 💍 1897/1164	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 19	Hawera Hawera	4 days 1 month	At the residence of the bride's mother, Emily Corbett, Regent Street, Hawera	97/1541	Emily Corbett, mother	20 April 1897	Thomas McDonald
249	27 April 1897	Charles Waite Selina Lichtwark	Charles Waite Helina Lichtwark 💍 1897/460	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmiller	29 22	Te Roti Hawera	4 years 3 days	Roman Catholic Chapel, Hawera	97/1423		27 April 1897	A. D. Mulvihill
250	21 May 1897	Ernest Cyril John Purser Kate Meyrick	Ernest Cyril John Purser Kate Meyrick 💍 1897/443	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser	24 22	Hawera Auckland	3 months 3 hours	Registrar's Office, Hawera	97/1420		21 May 1897	J. F. Martin
251	31 May 1897	James Charles Datson Jessie Alice Parkinson	James Charles Datson Jessie Alice Parkinson 💍 1897/440	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant Tailoress	30 21	Hawera Hawera	3 days 3 months	At the residence of the bride's parents, Wilson Street, Hawera	97/1426		31 May 1897	C. H. Laws
252	3 June 1897	John Hulbert Laura Johnston	John Neilbert Laura Johnston 💍 1897/559	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinetmaker	24 19	Hawera Hawera	2 years 18 months	At the residence of George Fallow, Argyle Street, Hawera	97/1542	Harriett Ellen Johnston, mother	3 June 1897	Thomas McDonald
253	15 June 1897	Alfred Theodore Bradley Clara Keith	Alfred Theodore Bradley Clara Keith 💍 1897/441	Bachelor Spinster	Coachbuilder	26 23	Hawera Hawera	1 year 23 years	At the residence of the bride's mother, Erin Street, Hawera	97/1427		15 June 1897	C. H. Laws

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).