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 713

District of Wellington 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
210	20 May 1897	Carl Heinrich Andreas Bachmann Margaret Winifred Garland	Carl Heinrich Andreas Mumme Margaret Winifred Farland 💍 1897/707	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker	27 20	Wellington Palmerston	years years	House of Mr. Moumme 59 Majorbanks St.	97/1708	George Garland, father	20 May 1897	Rev. J. K. Elliott
211	20 May 1897	Davis McGrath Elizabeth Pateman	Denis McGrath Elizabeth Pateman 💍 1897/740	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	42 23	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Mary of the Angels, Wellington	97/1740		20 May 1897	Rev. J. Devoy
212	21 May 1897	George Pinnock Beatrice Staples	George Pinnock Beatrice Staples 💍 1897/757	Bachelor Spinster	Restaurant Keeper	29 21	Wellington Wellington	months months	House of Mrs. Redmond Herbert St.	97/1759		21 May 1897	Rev. W. Baumler
213	21 May 1897	George Robert Aplin Mary Ann Isabel Hobb	George Robert Aplin Mary Ann Isabel Hobbs 💍 1897/802	Bachelor Spinster	Milkman	26 23	Khandallah Khandallah	years years	House of Mr. Hobbs, Khandallah	97/1807		21 May 1897	Rev. J. W. Chapman
214	25 May 1897	Henry James Currey Mary Ann Hall Cottman	Henry James Currey Mary Ann Hall Coltman 💍 1897/791	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	33 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mr. Cottman, Cuba St.	97/1773		25 May 1897	Rev. J. Dawson
215	25 May 1897	Emile Joseph Mathison Russell Mary Maud Howe	Emile Joseph Mathurin Rissel Mary Maud House 💍 1897/758	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	24 21	Wellington Wellington	1 year years	House of Mr. Patterson, Brougham Pt.	97/1760		25 May 1897	Rev. W. Baumber
216	25 May 1897	Henry Austice Agnes Trevelyan Trivillian	Henry Anstice Agnes Trinilian 💍 1897/709	Bachelor Spinster	Blindmaker	27 24	Wellington Wellington	3 days 1 year	Presbyterian Church, Cambridge Terrace	97/1710		25 May 1897	Rev. J. K. Elliott
217	25 May 1897	William Blunt Thomson Jessie Lillian Lewers	William Bennt Thomson Jessie Lillian Lewer 💍 1897/694	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	21 20	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office, Wellington	97/1692	Emma Elizabeth Lewer, mother	25 May 1897	Rev. W. J. Wyatt
218	26 May 1897	Anthony Wall Jnr. Alice Chili Rawson	Anthony Wall Alice Chilli Rowson 💍 1897/1428	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 21	Pourua Pourua	years 6 months	St. Johns Church, Dixon St.	97/2487		26 May 1897	Rev. J. Paterson
219	28 May 1897	Ernest Roddan Mowbray Eliza Ann Hewitt	Ernest Roddam Mowbray Eliza Ann Hewitt 💍 1897/737	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Matthews Church Marks.	97/1990		28 May 1897	Rev. R. Coffey

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).