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 815

District of Mount Grey 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
194	10 April 1897	James Banks Mary Hannah Baird	James Banks Mary Hannah Baird 💍 1897/4969	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 23	Sefton Sefton	13 years 23 years	Presbyterian Church, Sefton	97/2178		10 April 1897	Rev. R. McCully, Presbyterian Minister, Sefton
195	15 April 1897	Robert Struthers June Maria Baughan (nee Thompson)	Robert Struthers Jane Maria Vaughan 💍 1897/1210	Widower Widow	Merchant	53 37	Christchurch Sefton	23 years 19 years	The English Church, Sefton	97/2071		15 April 1897	Rev. Herbert East, English Church Minister, Leithfield
196	15 April 1897	John Edward Ashby Ellen Weir	John Edwards Ashby Ellen Weir 💍 1897/4970	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 21	Sefton Sefton	12 years 7 years	The English Church, Sefton	97/2179		15 April 1897	Rev. Herbert East, English Church Minister, Leithfield
197	6 May 1897	William Hart Emma Maud Ford	William Hart Emma Maud Ford 💍 1897/4971	Widower Spinster	Labourer	49 19	Amberley Amberley	4 years 19 years	The House of Thomas Ford, Amberley	97/2080	Thomas Ford	6 May 1897	Rev. Joseph Rapley, Wesleyan Minister, Amberley
198	10 May 1897	James Smith Alice Lillian Mirchand	James Smith Alice Lillian Mechant 💍 1897/4972 James Smith Clara Miria Newton 💍 1897/1152 James Smith Annie Gardyne 💍 1897/2310 James Smith Amelia Elizabeth Ann Haines 💍 1897/2633	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 24	Leithfield Leithfield	16 years 22 years	The English Church, Leithfield	97/2181		10 May 1897	Rev. Herbert East, English Church Minister, Leithfield
199	14 May 1897	George William Humphreys Edith Willett Ensor	George William Humphreys Edith Willett Ensor 💍 1897/4973	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	27 20	Mount Grey Mount Grey	6 Months 20 years	The English Church, Leithfield	97/2182	Charles Ensor	14 May 1897	Rev. Herbert East, English Church Minister, Leithfield
200	1 June 1897	Edwin Baker Lucy Ellen Wood	Edwin Baker Lucy Ellen Wood 💍 1897/4951	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 20	Amberley Amberley	12 years 20 years	The House of Arthur Wood, Amberley	97/2083	Arthur Wood	1 June 1897	Rev. Joseph Rapley, Wesleyan Minister, Amberley

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).