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 785

District of Christchurch 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
188	30 April 1897	Frederick McMurray Blanche Lindsey	Frederick McMurray Blanche Lindsey 💍 1897/1162	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman Cook	26 26	Christchurch Christchurch	26 years 26 years	St. Matthew's Church, Durham Street, Christchurch	97/2000	30 April 1897	Rev. C. Porter, Wesleyan
189	30 April 1897	Benjamin Philip Henrietta Jagger	Benjamin Philip Gully Henrietta Jaggar 💍 1897/1161	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 29	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 2 years	St. Luke's Church, Christchurch	97/2022	30 April 1897	Ven. Archdeacon Lingard, Church of England
190	1 May 1897	James Bruce Stenhane Harriet Perham	James Bruce Stenhouse Harriet Perham 💍 1897/1470	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	31 22	Christchurch Christchurch	16 years 22 years	St. Matthew's Church, Christchurch	97/2535	1 May 1897	Rev. S. Slushe, Presbyterian
191	4 May 1897	William Lowery Annie Hodkinson (née Henderson)	William Lowery Annie Hackshaw 💍 1897/1135	Widower Widow	Farmer	60 36	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 1 month	St. Matthew's Church, St. Albans	97/1996	4 May 1897	Rev. H. William, Church of England
192	4 May 1897	William Hastings Maud Melanie Bishop	William Hutchings Maud Melanie Bishop 💍 1897/1484	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	30 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 4 years	St. Barnabas Church, Fendalton	97/2525	4 May 1897	Rev. J. W. Stack, Church of England
193	6 May 1897	Albert Mackett Jane Archibald	Albert Plackett Jane Archibald 💍 1897/1104	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	28 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 25 years	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	97/1966	6 May 1897	J. W. Parker, Registrar
194	6 May 1897	Peter Hutton Clara Haworth	Peter Matson Clara Haworth 💍 1897/1236	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Tailoress	25 25	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 10 years	St. Mary's Church, Addington	97/2079	6 May 1897	Rev. S. Bean, Church of England
195	6 May 1897	William Bagley Sarah Lyons	William Bagley Sarah Lyons 💍 1897/2066	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Domestic	27 22	Christchurch Christchurch	27 years 22 years	Roman Catholic Church, Barbadoes Street, Christchurch	97/3281	6 May 1897	Rev. R. Cunningham, Roman Catholic

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).