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 752

District of Nelson 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
29	12 June 1897	John Black Margaret Emily Moloney	John Black Margaret Emily Moloney 💍 1897/315	Widower Spinster	Storekeeper, Post & Telegraph Dept.	54 30	Panama Hotel, Hardy Street, Nelson Manuka Street, Nelson	4 Days 4 Days	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church	97/1886	12 June 1897	W. G. Mahoney, Roman Catholic Priest
30	12 June 1897	Walter Herbert Frost Mary Ann Berry	Walter Herbert Frost Mary Ann Berry 💍 1897/1044	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Duties	28 24	Wakapuaka Wakapuaka Suburban	12 years 24 years	Residence of Wm. H. Berry	97/1874	12 June 1897	S. J. Prior, Wesleyan Minister
31	14 June 1897	John Caleb Trickett Annie Stewart	John Caleb Trickett Annie Stewart 💍 1897/1046 Andrew Brown Annie Stewart 💍 1897/1299	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	35 23	Hardy Street, Nelson Hardy Street, Nelson	3 Days 9 years	Presbyterian Church, Nile Street East, Nelson	97/1876	14 June 1897	J. H. MacKenzie, Presbyterian Minister
32	16 June 1897	Alfred James Fittall Bertha Sutton	Alfred James Fittall Bertha Sutton 💍 1897/1030	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	30 27	Richmond Richmond	3 years 27 years	Wesleyan Parsonage, Richmond	97/1882	16 June 1897	S. T. Marshall, Wesleyan Minister
33	16 June 1897	William Thomas King Mary Matilda Hunt	William Thomas King Mary Matilda Hunt 💍 1897/1027	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	36 28	Van Dieman Street, Nelson Vanguard Street, Nelson	20 years 3 years	All Saints Church, Vanguard Street, Nelson	97/1870	16 June 1897	F. W. Chatterton, Church of England Minister
34	18 June 1897	Charles Robert Morton Eleanor Maria Miller	Charles Robert Morton Eleanor Maria Miller 💍 1897/370	Widower (wife died March 1894) Spinster	Draper Milliner	34 29	Milton Street, Nelson Alton, Nelson	11 years 29 years	Residence of John Paul Miller, Alton Street, Nelson	97/1877	18 June 1897	J. H. MacKenzie, Presbyterian Minister
35	25 June 1897	George Edward Chisnall Annie Sarah Best	George Edward Chisnall Sarah Ann Best 💍 1897/1028	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	25 23	Appleby Appleby	25 years 23 years	St. Albans Church, Appleby	97/1880	25 June 1897	A. C. Wright, Church of England Minister
36	28 June 1897	John Hurley Stella Staines	John Hurley Stella Staines 💍 1897/1048	Bachelor Spinster	Confectioner	25 23	Bridge Street, Nelson Halifax Street, Nelson	23 years 9 days	In the residence of Charles Ricketts, Halifax Street, Nelson	97/1879	28 June 1897	R. S. Gray, Baptist Minister

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).