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 716

District of Wellington 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
242	10 June 1897	Walter Edward Roberts Mary Jane Smith	Walter Edward Roberts Mary Jane Smith 💍 1897/722	Bachelor Spinster	Draughtsman	34 31	Wellington Wellington	1 year 5 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	97/1698	10 June 1897	F.W. Mansfield
243	14 June 1897	Hugh Leaf Wilson Elizabeth Allender	Hugh Leaf Wilson Elizabeth Allender 💍 1897/783	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	34 22	Christchurch Petone	30 years 5 years	Presbyterian Church, Petone	97/1787	14 June 1897	Rev. Alex Thompson
244	14 June 1897	George Henry Hall Edith Allen	George Henry Hall Edith Allen 💍 1897/314	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	27 27	Wellington New South Wales	7 days 27 years	St. Thomas Church, Wellington	97/1789	14 June 1897	Rev. John de B. Galway
245	14 June 1897	John Penderleith Janet Mary Candlish	John Plenderleith Janet Mary Candlish 💍 1897/1431	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor (Master)	26 21	Wellington Christchurch	3 years 7 weeks	St. John's Manse, Wellington	97/2190	14 June 1897	Rev. Jas. Paterson
246	14 June 1897	Alfred Franklyn Holmes Ada Furness	Alfred Franklyn Holmes Ada Furness 💍 1897/785	Bachelor Spinster	Currier	26 21	Kawaara Crofton	26 years 2 years	Wesley Church, Thorndon	97/1790	14 June 1897	Rev. J. K. Jones
247	14 June 1897	William James Hamilton Minnie Carwell Cooke	William James Hamilton Minnie Carwell Cooke 💍 1897/723	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	27 24	Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	97/1699	14 June 1897	F.W. Mansfield
248	15 June 1897	George Bodley Jessie Lamont Kebbell	George Bodley Jessie Lamont Kebbell 💍 1897/2305 George Budley Jessie Lamont Kebbell 💍 1897/323	Widower Spinster	Hotel Proprietor	43 30	Wellington Wellington	8 years 3 weeks	Registrar's Office, Wellington	97/1700	15 June 1897	F.W. Mansfield
249	17 June 1897	Alexander Scott Alice Clent	Alexander Scott Alice Clent 💍 1897/805	Bachelor Spinster	Boilermaker	32 24	Wellington Wellington	1 year 15 months	Residence of Mr. A. J. Petersen	97/1810	17 June 1897	Rev. Chas. Dallaston
250	17 June 1897	Joseph Booth Davidson Margaret Doel	Joseph Booth Davidson Margaret Doel 💍 1897/724	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Waitress	30 21	Wellington Wellington	2 years 7 months	Registrar's Office, Wellington	97/1701	17 June 1897	F.W. Mansfield
251	17 June 1897	Robert Hutchinson Mary Ann Braid	Robert Hutchinson Mary Ann Braid 💍 1897/806	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 23	Wellington Wellington	20 years 5 years	Residence of Mrs. Braid, Minerva Street	97/1811	17 June 1897	Rev. W. Shiner

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).