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 805

District of Kaiapoi 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
927	3 April 1897	Abraham Blakeley Eva Isabel Hayman	Abraham Blakeley Eva Isabel Hayman 💍 1897/1253	Bachelor Spinster	Mill hand Weaver	23 22	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	16 years 22 years	Wesleyan Church, Kaiapoi	97/2117		3 April 1897	P. W. Sandilands, Wesleyan
928	12 April 1897	George McGregor Martha Margaret Giles	George McGregor Martha Margaret Giles 💍 1897/1254	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 21	Leithfield Eyretown	3 years 10 years	English Church, Eyretown	97/2118		12 April 1897	Wm. Cruden, Church of England
929	17 April 1897	George Henry Styles Grace Loveday	George Henry Styles Grace Loveday 💍 1897/1464	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Factory Employee	27 23	Masterton Kaiapoi	6 years 23 years	Registrar's Office, Kaiapoi	97/2529		17 April 1897	Registrar, Kaiapoi
930	22 April 1897	John William Jury Mary Alice Cherry	John William Jury Mary Alice Cherry 💍 1897/1255	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 22	Clarkville Eyretown	20 years 22 years	Wesleyan Church, Eyretown	97/2119		22 April 1897	Wm. Fagg, Wesleyan
931	26 May 1897	John Sims Amelia Vincent	John Sims Amelia Vincent 💍 1897/1256	Bachelor Widow	Coal & Timber Merchant	64 63	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	40 years 40 years	J. Sims House, Kaiapoi	97/2120		26 May 1897	P. W. Sandilands, Wesleyan
932	31 May 1897	William Morrison Sarah Lilian Lovegrove	William Morrison McMillan Sarah Lilian Lovegrove 💍 1897/1257	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 25	Saltwater Creek Waikuku	18 years 1 year	E. Orchard's House, Waikuku	97/2121		31 May 1897	Robert McCully, Presbyterian
933	10 June 1897	Albert William Sherrington Emily Stacey	Albert Nun Skerrington Emily Stacey 💍 1897/1440	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 20	Ohoka Ohoka	2 years 1 year	C. Sherrington's House, Waikuku	97/2475	W. Stacey, father	16 June 1897	John Dellow, Wesleyan

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).