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 715

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
231	8 June 1897	Henry Waugh Jane Ferguson	Henry Waugh Jane Ferguson 💍 1897/720	Bachelor Widow	Bootmaker	32 29	Wellington Wellington	4 months 4 months	Registrar's office, Wellington	97/1696		8 June 1897	J. W. Mansfield
232	8 June 1897	Charles John Erenstrom Eleanor Mary Ann Tasker	Charles John Erenstrom Eleanor Mary Ann Tasker 💍 1897/1429	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	27 22	Palmerston North Wellington	25 years 4 months	Residence of Mr. John Tasker, Wallace St., Wellington	97/2488		8 June 1897	Rev. G. Paterson
233	8 June 1897	Thomas Henry Frederick Hatchard Mabel Annie Garrett	Thomas Henry Frederick Hatchard Mabel Annie Garrett 💍 1897/761	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 20	Wellington Wellington	12 years 20 months	Residence of Mr. Garrett, 26 Martin St., Wellington	97/1963	Emma Garrett, Mother	8 June 1897	Rev. W. Baumler
234	8 June 1897	Wm. George Scott Sarah Jane Campbell	William George Scott Sarah Jane Campbell 💍 1897/803	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	29 28	Wellington Wellington	7 years 9 months	Residence of Miss Campbell, 9 Dixon St.	97/1808		8 June 1897	Rev. W. Shirer
235	8 June 1897	John Doncaster Eleanor Warne	John Doncaster Eleanor Warne 💍 1897/1430	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	39 24	Wellington Wellington	4 years 5 years	St. John's Manse, Wellington	97/2489		8 June 1897	Rev. Jas. Paterson
236	8 June 1897	Bruce Edward Estall Annie Hettie Strange	Bruce Edward Estall Annie Hettie Strange 💍 1897/721	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Servant	20 19	Wellington Wellington	8 months 10 months	Registrar's Office, Wellington	97/1697	Charles Estall, Father; Henrietta Strange, Mother	8 June 1897	J. W. Mansfield
237	9 June 1897	John McManaway Annie Gillespie	John McManaway Anne Gillespie 💍 1897/748	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	33 28	Wellington Wellington	33 years 28 years	St. Mary's Cathedral, Wellington	97/1725		9 June 1897	Rev. J. G. Dawson
239	9 June 1897	Edward Flynn Kate Cavanagh	Edward Flynn Kate Cavanagh 💍 1897/749	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 22	Kawarra Kawarra	5 years 10 years	St. Mary's Cathedral, Wellington	97/1726		9 June 1897	Rev. J. G. Dawson
240	10 June 1897	Alfred Avery Hannah Maria Copeland	Alfred Avery Hannah Maria Copeland 💍 1897/804	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 36	Taita Waiwetu	28 years years	Residence of Mrs. Copeland, Lower Hutt	97/1809		10 June 1897	Rev. I. Gray
241	10 June 1897	James Henry Polland Maude Margaret Gaffney	James Henry Poland Maude Margaret Gaffney 💍 1897/743	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	28 22	Wellington Boulcott St.	4 years 1 year	St. Mary of the Angels, Boulcott St.	97/1743		10 June 1897	Rev. G. Ainsworth

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).