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 659

District of Carterton 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
8	3 May 1897	August Charles Nitz Marion Raymond	August Charles Nitz Marion Raymond 💍 1897/560	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Governess	26 23	East Coast Wellington	3 weeks 4 days	Charles Murray, High Street, Carterton	97/1553		3 May 1897	Charles Murray, Presbyterian Minister, Carterton
9	9 April 1897	Albert Arthur Bond Jane McKenzie	Albert Arthur Bond Jane McKenzie 💍 1897/579	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer None	23 21	Carterton Carterton	20 years 21 years	Residence of Mr. McKenzie, Carterton	97/1552		9 April 1897	Charles Murray, Presbyterian Minister, Carterton
9	10 May 1897	George Ridgway Lucy Elsmore	George Ridgway Lucy Elsmore 💍 1897/578	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Duties	23 17	Masterton Masterton	4 days 4 days	Office of Registrar, Carterton	97/1557	Thomas Elsmore, Father of Bride	10 May 1897	Registrar of Marriages, Carterton
10	20 May 1897	Frank Baldock Jane Celia Burke	Frank Baldock Gray Jane Celia Burke 💍 1897/575	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Servant	23 22	Gladstone Gladstone	3 months 9 months	St. Mark's Church of England, Carterton	97/1548		20 May 1897	William Ballachey, Minister, Church of England, Carterton
11	10 June 1897	Francis Edward Tyler Ellen Davies	Francis Edward Tyler Ellen Davies 💍 1897/341	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic Duties	29 20	Carterton Carterton	15 years 23 years	Building known as 'Assembly Rooms', Carterton	97/1547		10 June 1897	Joseph Birkenhaw, Major, Salvation Army, Carterton
12	12 June 1897	Henry Franks Jennie Maud Ward	Henry Franks Jennie Maud Wand 💍 1897/576	Widower Spinster	Hotelkeeper Housekeeper	31 25	Carterton Carterton	2 years 2 years	St. Mark's Church of England, Carterton	97/1549		14 June 1897	William Ballachey, Minister, Church of England, Carterton
13	18 June 1897	Matthew Crawford Marshall Emma Knight	Matthew Crawford Marshall Emma Knight 💍 1897/577	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Domestic Duties	28 23	Martinborough Gladstone	3 days 10 years	St. Mark's Church of England, Carterton	97/1550		15 June 1897	William Ballachey, Minister, Church of England, Carterton
14	25 June 1897	Garnett Wolseley King Emily Mary Carman	Garnett Wolsley King Emily Mary Carman 💍 1897/318	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Duties	21 19	Masterton Clareville	2 years 8 years	Presbyterian Church, Carterton	97/1554	Mary Ann Carman, Mother of Bride	25 June 1897	Charles Murray, Presbyterian Minister, Carterton

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).