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 717

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
252	19 June 1897	James Brownlee Margaret Wilson	James Brownlee Margaret Wilson 💍 1897/1432 James Craigie Mary Wilson 💍 1897/53 James Hislop Margaret Sarah Wilson 💍 1897/2018	Bachelor Spinster	Cheesemaker	26 26	Apiti, Feilding Christchurch	2 years 1 year	St. Johns Manse, Wellington	97/2491		19 June 1897	Rev. J. Paterson
253	18 June 1897	Thomas Henry McKinley Florence West	Thomas Henry McKinley Florence Margaret West 💍 1897/788	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 25	Wellington Wellington	14 days 5 years	Residence of Mrs. Gordie, 5 Mann St.	97/1792		18 June 1897	Mr. A. F. Turner
254	18 June 1897	Samuel Huxtable Dewsbury Perryman Ellen Jane Terry	Samuel Huxtable Dewsbury Peryman Ellen Jane Levy 💍 1897/763	Bachelor Spinster	Wesley Minister School teacher	29 29	Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 weeks	Residence of Mr. Ernest Hunnebell, Shannon St.	97/1764		18 June 1897	Rev. W. Baumber
255	19 June 1897	William Henry Catley Jane Monaghan	William Henry Catley Jane Monaghan 💍 1897/750	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	30 18	MaKara MaKara	30 years 18 years	Catholic Church, MaKara	97/1797	Sarah Monaghan, Mother	19 June 1897	Rev. P.C. Costello
256	19 June 1897	John George Deed Frances Jane Wood	John George Seed Frances Jane Wood 💍 1897/1862	Bachelor Spinster	Marine Engineer	36 27	Wellington Wellington	36 years 11 years	St. Marks Church, Wellington	97/3051		19 June 1897	Rev. R. Coffey
257	21 June 1897	Charles Reere Jean Elizabeth Oxley	Charles Reeve Jean Elizabeth Oxley 💍 1897/744	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	28 23	Eketahuna Reefton	3 years 20 years	St. Marks Church, Wellington	97/1791		21 June 1897	Rev. R. Coffey
258	21 June 1897	Charles Frederick Alexander Whiteford Helen Preston	Charles Frederick Alexander Whiteford Helen Preston 💍 1897/764	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	25 25	Riverton Wellington	31 years 7 years	Wesleyan Church, Taranaki St.	97/1795		23 June 1897	Rev. W. Baumber
258A	21 June 1897	Arthur Mackeson Margaret Robertson Rough	Arthur Mackeson Margaret Robertson Rough 💍 1897/725	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	21 23	London, England Scotland	21 years 23 years	Registrars Office, Wellington	97/1702		21 June 1897	W.F. Mansfield
259	21 June 1897	Robert Krahagen Helen Jane Fellingham	Robert Krahagen Ellen Jane Fellingham 💍 1897/797	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	24 22	Masterton Wellington	5 years 2 months	Trinity Church, Newtown	97/1780		21 June 1897	Rev. A.E. Lawry
260	24 June 1897	William Henry Zacariah Nemmos Edith Agnes Fitzgerald	William Henry Z Nimmo Edith Agnes Fitzgerald 💍 1897/727	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 24	Wellington Wellington	22 years 24 years	Catholic Church, Wellington	97/1728		24 June 1897	Rev. J.G. Dawson

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).