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 645

District of Waipawa 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
543	2 April 1897	Richard John Pellow Emily Cooke	Richard John Pellow Emily Cooke 💍 1897/1002	Bachelor Spinster	Platelayer	21 23	Waipawa Waipawa	1 year 8 months	St. Peters Church, Waipawa	97/1516		2 April 1897	Rev. A. F. Gardiner
544	14 April 1897	Percy George Hyde Louisa Esther Bisson	Percy George Hyde Louisa Esther Bisson 💍 1897/534	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	21 23	Kaikora Kaikora	3 years 5 weeks	Office of Registrar, Waipawa	97/1517		14 April 1897	Samuel Johnson, Registrar
545	11 May 1897	John Rumball Edith Mary Foulds	John Rumbal Edith Mary Foulds 💍 1897/545	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 18	Hampden Heavitree, Tikokino	2 1/2 years 9 years	Office of Registrar, Waipawa	97/1518	William Foulds, Father	11 May 1897	Samuel Johnson, Registrar
546	12 May 1897	Henry Sloan Elizabeth Maguire	Henry Sloan Elizabeth McGuire 💍 1897/3466	Bachelor Spinster	Platelayer Domestic	27 25	Waipawa Waipawa	4 years 1 year	St. Patrick's, Waipawa	97/2505		12 May 1897	Rev. P. J. Power
547	29 May 1897	Frederick James Ireland Elizabeth Ann Cetarken	Frederick James Ireland Elizabeth Ann Peterken 💍 1897/552	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	23 17	Waipawa Kaikora	8 years 2 1/2 years	Residence T. Ireland, Waipawa	97/1519	Mary Ann Cetarken, Mother	29 May 1897	Rev. H. W. Johnston
548	3 June 1897	Henry Stephenson Ada Talboys	Henry Stephenson Ada Talboys 💍 1897/553	Bachelor Spinster	Station hand	22 21	Patangata Kaikora	14 days 2 1/2 years	St. James Church, Kaikora	97/1520		3 June 1897	Rev. A. F. Gardiner
549	14 June 1897	Frank Coe Faram Mary Gow Vesty	Frank Coe Faram Mary Gow Vesty 💍 1897/554	Bachelor Spinster	School Teacher School Teacher	26 20	Hampden Hampden	1 1/2 years 14 years	Residence M. Vesty, Hampden	97/1521	M. Vesty, Father	17 June 1897	Rev. A. F. Gardiner

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).