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 705

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1897

The page corner is missing and page number 707 is visible from the underlying page

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
128	12 April 1897	William Lawrence Ridley Jane Mary Wilson	William Laurence Ridley Jane Mary Wilson 💍 1897/728	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	43 35	Wellington Wellington	3 years 3 years	St. Mary of the Angels, Boulcott St.	97/1729	12 April 1897	Rev. Y. Devoy
129	13 April 1897	Cecil Roberts Adams Gertrude La Hogue Jones	Cecil Robert Adams Gertrude La Hogue Jones 💍 1897/789	Bachelor Spinster		25 23	Wellington Wellington	1 year 1 year	House of Mrs. Hancock, Upper Hutt	97/1793	13 April 1897	Rev. William H. Gray
130	13 April 1897	George Peter Petersen Agnes Bishop	George Peter Petersen Agnes Bishop 💍 1897/777	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	35 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	Congregational Church, Courtenay Place	97/1781	13 April 1897	Rev. B. J. Hallowes
131	13 April 1897	Thomas Vincent Elizabeth Smith	Thomas Vincent Elizabeth Smith 💍 1897/729 Percival Henry Pease Elizabeth Smith 💍 1897/1660	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	27 26	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Mary of the Angels, Boulcott St.	97/1780	13 April 1897	Rev. Jno. Ainsworth
132	13 April 1897	William Cobbetts Armstrong Mary Ann Harris	William Ebbetts Armstrong Mary Anne Harris 💍 1897/790 William James McIntyre Mary Jane Harris 💍 1897/703	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	42 32	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mrs. Fulton, Banks Terrace	97/1794	13 April 1897	Rev. Wm. Shirer
133	13 April 1897	Alfred John Wakeford Angelina Lethaby	Alfred John Wakeford Angelina Lethaby 💍 1897/772	Bachelor Spinster	Umbrella Maker	22 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mrs. Lethaby, New St.	97/1749	13 April 1897	Rev. W. Baumber
134	14 April 1897	Christian Emil Rasmussen Elizabeth Roberts Meadow	Christian Emil Rasmussen Elizabeth Roberts 💍 1897/773	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	47 40	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Bridge, Cuba St.	97/1750	14 April 1897	Rev. W. Baumber
135	14 April 1897	Alfred Boden Margaret Jamieson	Alfred William Boden Margaret Jane Jamieson 💍 1897/778	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 28	Wellington Wellington	months years	House of Rev. B. J. Hallowes, Kent Terrace	97/1782	14 April 1897	Rev. B. J. Hallowes
136	14 April 1897	Peter Brown Margaret McDonald	Peter Brown Margaret McDonald 💍 1897/701	Bachelor Spinster	Boiler Maker	30 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars Office, Wellington	97/1696	14 April 1897	W. J. Wyatt
137	14 April 1897	William Odden Southee Catherine Maud Judd	William Odden Southee Catherine Maud Judd 💍 1897/774	Widower Spinster	Storekeeper	39 25	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. D. Williams, Tinakori Road	97/1751	14 April 1897	Rev. H. Baumber

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).