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 631

District of Napier 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
39	17 April 1897	Francis William Long Edith Mary Hedwark	Frances William Long Edith Mary Redward 💍 1897/3205	Bachelor Spinster	Moulder Schoolteacher	31 24	Spit Spit	3 days 24 years	Presbyterian Church Spit	97/4730		14 April 1897	Rev. J. Paterson, Presbyterian
40	19 April 1897	Robert John Goodman Alice Maud Bellet	Robert John Goodman Alice Maud Belfet 💍 1897/513	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	23 23	Taradale Taradale	4 months 5 days	Church of England Taradale	97/1500		19 April 1897	Rev. A. P. Clark, Church of England
41	26 April 1897	Frederick Macaulay Gregorie Edith Dinwiddie	Frederick Macaulay Gregorie Edith Dinwiddie 💍 1897/3432	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	35 23	Weber Napier	7 years 20 years	Cathedral Napier	97/1503		26 April 1897	Rev. Dean Hovell, Church of England
42	1 May 1897	Michael Dunn Sarah Percy	Michael Dunn Surah Percy 💍 1897/1222	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	31 30	Hastings, Napier Napier	5 1/2 years 8 years	Roman Catholic Church Napier	97/2087		1 May 1897	Rev. Father Grogan, Roman Catholic
43	3 May 1897	Hugh Bradley Lizzie Hawes	Hugh Bradley Lizzie Hawes 💍 1897/1223	Bachelor Spinster	Driver Domestic	31 26	Petane Petane	11 years 4 years	Roman Catholic Church Napier	97/2088		3 May 1897	Rev. Father Grogan, Roman Catholic
44	11 May 1897	Samuel James Bolton Alice Hobbs Jones	Samuel James Bolton Alice Hobbs Jones 💍 1897/2355	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	24 18	Napier Napier	2 years 5 years	Residence of Bridesmother, Shakespeare Rd	97/3624	Caroline H. Jones, Mother	4 May 1897	Rev. J. Paterson, Presbyterian
45	10 May 1897	William Henry Lodge Elizabeth Hawkins	William Henry Lodge Elizabeth Hawkins 💍 1897/504	Widower Spinster	Butcher Domestic	46 40	Napier Napier	4 months 4 months	Wesleyan Church Napier	97/1490		10 May 1897	Rev. W. H. Beck, Wesleyan
46	19 May 1897	Robert Murray Hausine Israelsen	Robert Murray Hansine Israelson 💍 1897/9	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 20	Napier Napier	8 days 15 years	Office of the Registrar Napier	97/1487	Olivia Verason, Mother	19 May 1897	S. F. Bago, Registrar

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).