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 714

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
220	28 May 1897	Ernest Edward Tucker Stella Hazlewood Tucker	Ernest Edward Tucker Stella Hazelwood Tucker 💍 1897/759	Bachelor	Storekeeper	28 25	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	House of M. Tucker, Arthur Street	97/1961		28 May 1897	Rev. W. Baumber
221	29 May 1897	Henry Lamberg Susan Dorne	Henry Lamberg Susan Dorne 💍 1897/702	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	25 18	Kilbernie Kilbernie	years years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	97/1693	George Dorne, Father	29 May 1897	W. J. Wyatt
222	1 June 1897	Edwin Harrison Mary Sellars Eves	Edwin Harrison Mary Sellars Eves 💍 1897/710	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	32 31	Wellington Wellington		Presbyterian Church, Kent Terrace	97/1711		1 June 1897	Rev. J. K. Elliott
224	1 June 1897	Alfred George North Rebecca Jane Moffatt	Alfred George North Rebecca Jane Moffatt 💍 1897/711	Bachelor Spinster	Upholsterer	29 24	Wellington Wellington	9 years 3 years	Residence of Rev. J. K. Elliott, Kent Terrace	97/1712		1 June 1897	Rev. J. K. Elliott
225	2 June 1897	James Lynam Dempsey Leila Staples	James Lajnam Dempsey Leila Staples 💍 1897/713	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	26 21	Wellington Wellington	6 months	Registrar's Office, Wellington	97/1694		2 June 1897	J. M. Mansfield
226	3 June 1897	Samuel James Balcome Hannah Tattersall	Samuel James Balcome Hannah Tattersall 💍 1897/719	Widower Spinster	Cook	30 23	Wellington Wellington	years 4 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	97/1695		3 June 1897	J. M. Mansfield
227	3 June 1897	Alfred Noel Salmon Annie Magdalene Bilderbeck	Alfred Noel Salmon Annie Magdalene Bilderbeck 💍 1897/760	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	33 27	Wellington Wellington	16 days 2½ years	Wesleyan Parsonage, Taranaki St.	97/1762		3 June 1897	Rev. W. Baumber
228	4 June 1897	Michael Sullivan Delia Hearn	Michael Sullivan Delia Hearn 💍 1897/747	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	24 22	Wellington Wellington	4 years 5 years	Catholic Cathedral, Wellington	97/1724		4 June 1897	Rev. J. G. Dawson
229	5 June 1897	William Haigh Mary Kelly	William Haigh Mary Kelly 💍 1897/741	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	36 24	Gollans Valley, Wellington Gollans Valley, Wellington	10 weeks 1 year	St. Mary's Church, Boulcott St.	97/1741		5 June 1897	Rev. Thos. Devoy
230	7 June 1897	Richard Kelly Catherine Madden	Richard Kelly Catherine Madden 💍 1897/742	Bachelor Spinster	Marine Stoker	30 29	Wellington Wellington	2 months 4 years	St. Mary's Church, Boulcott St.	97/1742		7 June 1897	Rev. Thos. Devoy

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).