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 790

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
226	20 May 1897	George Taylor Fanny Schollar	George Taylor Fanny Schollar 💍 1897/1110	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Domestic	38 30	Christchurch Christchurch	14 days 4 years	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	97/1971		20 May 1897	Registrar of Marriages, J. W. Parkerson
227	20 May 1897	Robert Currie Grace McCrea Whyte	Robert Currie Grace McCrea Whyte 💍 1897/3445	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Tailoress	30 31	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 15 years	House of Rev. D. Whyte, Christchurch	97/2078		20 May 1897	Rev. J. J. Doke, Baptist
228	20 May 1897	Charles Alfred John Priest Constance Lawing	Charles Alfred John Priest Constance Lavinia McIntosh Waghorn 💍 1897/1219	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	6 weeks 1 month	St. Peter's Church, Armagh Street, Christchurch	97/2084		20 May 1897	Rev. W. Scorgie, Presbyterian
229	21 May 1897	William Francis Blewett Rose Maria Harris	William Francis Bennett Rose Maria Harrow 💍 1897/1111	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 32	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 10 years	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	97/1997		21 May 1897	Registrar of Marriages, J. W. Parkerson
230	21 May 1897	Henry William Wright Mary Jane Bradshaw	Henry William Wright Mary Jane Bradshaw 💍 1897/1473	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 19	Christchurch Christchurch	9 months 10 months	House of Rev. D. Stantiall, Lichfield Street, Christchurch	97/2538	Thomas Bradshaw, Father	21 May 1897	Rev. D. Stantiall, Presbyterian
231	21 May 1897	Sydney John Court Jane Perkins	Sydney John A'Court Jane Perkins 💍 1897/1119	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	18 20	Christchurch Christchurch	18 years 20 years	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	97/1979	George Court, Father; John Perkins, Father	21 May 1897	Registrar of Marriages, J. W. Parkerson
232	21 May 1897	Alfred Manhire Mayrich McMeeken	Alfred Manhire Margaret McAlister 💍 1897/1235	Widower Spinster	Bootmaker Dressmaker	27 24	Christchurch Christchurch	19 years 10 years	Wesleyan Church, Selwyn Street, Christchurch	97/2078		21 May 1897	Rev. A. B. Chappell, Wesleyan
233	21 May 1897	Robert Edward Hay Gertrude Woolfrey	Robert Edward Hoy Gertrude Wolfreys 💍 1897/2075	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 29	Christchurch Christchurch	28 years 26 years	Roman Catholic Church, Barbados Street, Christchurch	97/3283		21 May 1897	Rev. S. Cummings, 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).