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 831

District of Timaru 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
45	12 June 1897	Henry Gough Alice Jane Clements	Henry Gough Alice Jane Clements 💍 1897/4938	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	28 years 20 years	Timaru Timaru	2 1/2 years 10 years	Dwellinghouse of Mrs. Clements, Barnard St., Timaru	97/2169	Charles Clements, father	12 June 1897	Rev. Peter W. Jones, Primitive Methodist Minister
46	14 June 1897	John Hunter Agnes Sammie	Peter Hunter Agnes Gammie 💍 1897/4931	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	31 years 22 years	Timaru Timaru	2 years 3 days	Presbyterian Church, Timaru	97/2163		14 June 1897	Rev. Wm. Gillies, Minister
47	16 June 1897	Jesse Breddy Margaret Honeyman	Jesse Preddy Margarett Honeyman 💍 1897/4939	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	26 years 28 years	Timaru Timaru	3 days 2 years	Dwellinghouse of Jesse Honeyman	97/2170		16 June 1897	Rev. Peter W. Jones, Primitive Methodist Minister
48	17 June 1897	Hugh Morison Elizabeth Wallace	Hugh Morrison Elizabeth Wallace 💍 1897/4936	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant Professional Nurse	26 years 22 years	Timaru Timaru	3 days 22 years	Registrar's Office, Timaru	97/2149		17 June 1897	Alex. Montgomery, Registrar
49	18 June 1897	Thomas Sallatly Betsie Stephenson	Thomas Galletty Betsie Stephenson 💍 1897/2928	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 years 25 years	St. Andrews St. Andrews	12 months 2 months	English Church, St. Andrews	97/4349		18 June 1897	Rev. L. C. Brady, Church of England Clergyman
50	18 June 1897	George William Henry Japp Sarah Coram	George William Henry Tapp Sarah Coram 💍 1897/4926	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 years 22 years	Waimataitai Timaru	8 years 17 years	Wesleyan Church, Timaru	97/2158		18 June 1897	Rev. Charles F. Bearcroft, Wesleyan Minister
51	21 June 1897	William Murdock Bruce Susan Donn	William Murdoch Bruce Susan Donn 💍 1897/4932	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 years 26 years	Timaru Timaru	3 days 10 years	Presbyterian Church, Timaru	97/2164		21 June 1897	Rev. Wm. Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
52	25 June 1897	John Roberton Millar Ella Isabella Irwin	John Robertson Millar Ella Isabella Irwin 💍 1897/4927	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	28 years 26 years	Timaru Timaru	4 years 26 years	Dwellinghouse of Mr. Irwin, West Belt, Timaru	97/2159		25 June 1897	Rev. Charles F. Bearcroft, Minister

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).