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 776

District of Ashburton 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
1005	11 May 1897	John Henry Shell Mary Helen Rodda	John Henry Hell Mary Helen Rodda 💍 1897/1095	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker Dressmaker	22 21	Ashburton Ashburton	22 years 15 years	Private Dwelling of Mary Helen Rodda at Ashburton	97/1948		11 May 1897	Revd. John Olphert
1006	22 May 1897	William Henry Saynor Flora Low	William Henry Hayman Flora Low 💍 1897/3443	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 24	Ashburton Millowby	3 days 20 years	Wesleyan Church at Millowby	97/1949		22 May 1897	Revd. J. J. Mather
1007	25 May 1897	Andrew Dyce Buchanan Annie Miles	Andrew Fyfe Buchanan Annie Miles 💍 1897/1106	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Dressmaker	21 22	Ashburton Tinwald	3 days 2 years	Private Dwelling of Joseph Miles at Tinwald	97/1950		25 May 1897	Revd. Geo. B. Inglis
1008	19 June 1897	Laurence Hanrahan Margaret McDonnell	Lawrence Hanrahan Margaret McDonnell 💍 1897/3352	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Domestic Servant	23 28	Ashburton Ashburton	8 years 8 years	Roman Catholic Church at Ashburton	97/4920		19 June 1897	Revd. Canon Donnell
1008	12 June 1897	William Murdock Bruce Jessie Donn	William Murdoch Bruce Susan Donn 💍 1897/4932	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 26	Seafield Lismore	18 years 10 years	Presbyterian Church at Lismore	Not issued			No certificate was issued by me the parties having decided to marry elsewhere.
1009	23 June 1897	William Alexander English Ellen Dennie Ives	William Alexander English Helen Denny Ives 💍 1897/2189	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	27 23	Ashburton Ashburton	3 days 3 days	Registrar's Office Ashburton	Not issued			No certificate was issued by me, the parties having decided to marry elsewhere.
1010	25 June 1897	John Moriarty Annie Louisa Frisby	John Moriarty Annie Louisa Frisby 💍 1897/2024	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 18	Tinwald Allenton	15 years 3 months	St. Stephen's Church at Ashburton	97/3216	Robert Frisby, father	25 June 1897	Revd. Thos. A. Hamilton
1011	25 June 1897	Samuel Payne Sarah Ann Green	Samuel Payne Sarah Ann Green 💍 1897/2025	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Dressmaker	41 40	Hampstead Hampstead	20 years 5 days	St. Stephen's Church at Ashburton	97/3217		25 June 1897	Revd. Thos. A. Hamilton
1012	30 June 1897	Peter Hanson Sarah Helen Greenaway	Peter Hanson Sarah Ellen Greenaway 💍 1897/3511	Bachelor Widow	Ploughman	42 33	Ashburton Hampstead	4 days 1 year	Dwellinghouse of Mrs. Greenaway at Hampstead	97/3215		30 June 1897	Revd. John Olphert
1013	30 June 1897	Thomas Bright Margaret Dillon	Thomas Bright Margaret Dillon 💍 1897/1990	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman Housekeeper	36 21	Ashburton Ashburton	23 years 3 months	Registrar's Office Ashburton	97/3202		30 June 1897	J. Ward, Registrar

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).