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 704

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
118	7 April 1897	William Shackleton Kate Davis	William Shackleton Kate Davis 💍 1897/768	Widower Spinster	Butcher	40 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Rev. J. Dawson Cuba St.	97/1769	7 April 1897	Rev. J. Dawson
119	7 April 1897	Samuel Williams Minnie Louisa Knight	Samuel Williams Minnie Louisa Knight 💍 1897/751	Bachelor Spinster	Moulder	26 24	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Miss Contessa Dixon St.	97/1744	7 April 1897	Rev. John Ainsworth
120	7 April 1897	Henry Pateman Letitia Donaldson	Henry Pateman Letitia Donaldson 💍 1897/769	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	20 19	Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 days	House of Mrs. Alabaster Little Buller St.	97/1746	7 April 1897	Rev. W. Baumber
121	9 April 1897	William Hall Manning Fisher Alice Louise Guthrie	William Hall Manning Fisher Alice Louisa Guthrie 💍 1897/786	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 23	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mrs. Guthrie Revan St.	97/1791	9 April 1897	Rev. A. J. Turner
122	9 April 1897	John Anderson Agnes Amelia Skinner	John Anderson Agnes Amelia Skinner 💍 1897/704	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	45 30	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Rev. J. K. Elliott Kent Terrace	97/1705	9 April 1897	Rev. J. K. Elliott
123	10 April 1897	Thomas William Boon Lilly Maldenhall	Thomas William Boon Lilly Mildenhall 💍 1897/770	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	23 23	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mrs. Maldenhall Moir St.	97/1747	10 April 1897	Rev. W. Baumber
124	12 April 1897	John Francis Hall Mabel Grimmer	John Francis Wall Mabel Grimmer 💍 1897/1422	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	25 21	Wellington Wellington	years 4 days	St. Johns Manse Woolcoombe St.	97/2482	12 April 1897	Rev. Jas. Paterson
125	12 April 1897	William Rooderkerk Blanche Tattersall	William Rooderkerk Blanche Tattersall 💍 1897/771	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	32 22	Wellington Wellington	years 14 days	House of Mr. Field Boulcott St.	97/1748	12 April 1897	Rev. W. Baumber
126	12 April 1897	George Butler Lusk Jessie Fargie	George Butler Lusk Jessie Fargie 💍 1897/1423	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 28	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mrs. Galloway Hopper St.	97/2483	12 April 1897	Rev. Jas. Paterson
127	12 April 1897	Thomas Henry Pytt Jackson Emma Davies	Thomas Henry Pytt-Jackson Emma Davies 💍 1897/1461	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	31 28	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Pauls Church Wellington	97/2503	12 April 1897	Rev. Thos. F. Sprott

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).