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 791

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
234	22 May 1897	David Hamafin Sarah McCormack	David Hannafin Sarah McCormack 💍 1897/1194	Bachelor Spinster	Constable Dressmaker	28 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 18 years	S. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Manchester St.	97/2056	22 May 1897	Rev. D. J. Malone, Roman Catholic
235	22 May 1897	August Alexander Matilda Harrison	August Alexander Altone Matilda Ann Harrison 💍 1897/3647	Bachelor Widow	Fisherman	36 29	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 4 years	Registrar's Office, Litchfield Street	97/2539	22 May 1897	Registrar J. W. Parkerson
236	25 May 1897	Abraham Constable Gayuch Inglis	Abraham Constable Margaret Inglis 💍 1897/1130	Bachelor Spinster		55 36	Christchurch Christchurch	25 years 12 years	Registrar's Office	97/1974	25 May 1897	Registrar J. W. Parkerson
237	25 May 1897	John Stancliffe Campbell Sarah Louisa Ann Wishart	John Stancliffe Campbell Sarah Louisa Ann Wiseman 💍 1897/1191	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Machinists	26 29	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	Wesleyan Church, Durham Street	97/2030	25 May 1897	Rev. D. McNicoll, Wesleyan
238	25 May 1897	Alexander Fairbairn Eliza Adela Walker	Alexander Fairbairn Eliza Adele Walker 💍 1897/1158	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	22 23	Christchurch 10 Pigeons Lane, Addington	22 years	House of Mr. C. A. Walker	97/2019	25 May 1897	Rev. G. Webster, Presbyterian
239	26 May 1897	Frederick Paul Suter Margaret Sophia Buchanan	Frederick Paul Sector Margaret Sophia Buchanan 💍 1897/1137	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Domestic	24 22	Christchurch Christchurch	2 weeks 4 days	Registrar's Office	97/1975	26 May 1897	Registrar J. W. Parkerson
240	26 May 1897	John Dempsey Christina O'Rourke	John Dempsey Christina O'Rourke 💍 1897/2076	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	32 27	Christchurch Christchurch	18 years 20 years	Roman Catholic Church, Barbadoes Street	97/3284	26 May 1897	Rev. Father Cumming, Roman Catholic
241	26 May 1897	William Joseph Boon Eliza Aldwin	William Joseph Boon Eliza Aldnin 💍 1897/1211	Bachelor Spinster	Coachbuilder	25 26	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 22 years	Congregational Church, Ferry Road, Linwood	97/2049	26 May 1897	Rev. J. Saymour, Congregational

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).