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 727

District of Wairau 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
10	3 April 1897	George Green Sarah Ann Neville	George Green Sarah Ann Neville 💍 1897/843	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 26	Blenheim Blenheim	3 days 1 year	Church of the Nativity, Blenheim	97/1825		3 April 1897	Venble Archdeacon Thomas Samuel Grace
11	12 April 1897	Walter Wilfred Chapman Emily Isabella Rogers	Walter Wilfred Chapman Emily Isabella Rogers 💍 1897/824	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	27 23	Kekerangu Kekerangu	4 years 12 years	In the house of Edward Salter Rogers, Kekerangu	97/1829		12 April 1897	Rev. William Mc Ara
12	12 April 1897	George Service Frances Muriel Wilson	George Service Frances Muriel Wilson 💍 1897/1925	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Millinery Saleswoman	31 28	Blenheim Dunedin	5 weeks Since birth	In the residence of Mr. W. O. Robb, Blenheim	97/3126		12 April 1897	Rev. William Officer Robb
13	15 April 1897	John Jacob Freeman Annie Aberhardt	John Jacob Freeman Annie Aberhardt 💍 1897/844	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Domestic	30 28	Blenheim Blenheim	3 years 5 years	In the Salvation Army Barracks, Blenheim	97/1826	M. N. Clifford	15 April 1897	Venble Archdeacon Thomas Samuel Grace
14	17 April 1897	Henry Frederick Christian Dencker Laura Caroline Dixon	Henry Frederick Christian Deneker Laura Caroline Dixon 💍 1897/845	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep-farmer	31 23	Blenheim Blenheim	4 days 4 months	Church of the Nativity, Blenheim	97/1827		17 April 1897	Venble Archdeacon Thomas Samuel Grace
15	20 April 1897	Frank Lionel Anderson Florence Kember Smith	Frank Lionel Anderson Florence Kimber Smith 💍 1897/846	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep-farmer	26 29	Blenheim Blenheim	3 days 5 months	Church of the Nativity, Blenheim	97/1828		20 April 1897	Venble Archdeacon Thomas Samuel Grace
93	3 April 1897	Frederick Houldsworth Sarah Elizabeth Taylor	Frederick Houldsworth Sarah Elizabeth Taylor 💍 1897/842	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer Dressmaker	25 25	Blenheim Blenheim	Since birth Since birth	Roman Catholic Presbytery	97/1824		3 April 1897	Rev. William Goggan

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).